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In Memory of Gloria Yancey

An image of Gloria Yancy

One of our dear friends and coworkers, Gloria Yancey, passed away unexpectedly on August 5, 2020. Gloria worked at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library for almost 13 years and was a member of our Content Management team. Her accomplishments were many, and we will always remember her fondly.

At a staff gathering following her passing, we remembered her for her professionalism and enthusiasm for her work in the library. Many remembered seeing her and her husband, Kevin, as they came and went from work together or met for their weekly lunch date. She had a sense of humor that made work more fun and those who came after her remembered how she made them feel welcome when they first started working here.

We all knew that Gloria was proud of her family and that they were the most important thing to her. She loved to talk about them and the awesome vacations they took. She was a legend for her amazing Christmas sweater and her distaste for long meetings. Whenever a meeting ended early, Gloria would break into a big smile. She was anxious to get back to work.

Gloria had recently begun a new role keeping the library’s research guides up to date with the latest editions of important medical texts and writing descriptions of them for library users. Her tireless efforts freed us to take on other tasks and contributed to improved resources for our students, faculty, and staff. The work she did will be valuable to us for a long time and we’ll remember her often as we use the products of that work to serve our users.

We will miss Gloria’s smile, her kindness, her sense of humor and her enthusiasm.  We feel fortunate to have worked with her.

That was Gloria

By Terri Bennett

If you have used FindIt,

That was Gloria.

If you have requested an article or book from ILLiad,

That was Gloria.

If you have used a Research Guide to get a textbook or journal,

That was Gloria.

If you have used the Database webpage,

That was Gloria.

Gloria helped so many IUSM faculty, researchers, staff and students but they didn’t realize it,

That was Gloria.

Gloria didn’t want recognition, she was happy knowing she did a job well done,

That was Gloria.

Gloria came to work every day and gave her best,

That was Gloria.

Reliable, dependable, kind, courteous, but mostly, she was everyone’s friend,

That was Gloria.

Gloria leaves behind people who loved her, a desire to be more like her and so many happy memories,

That was Gloria.