Glenda Lynn Hanson passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of August 30, 2026, surrounded by love and family. She was 84 years old.

Born in Stephenville, Texas, Glenda grew up as an only child on her family's farm in Proctor, where watermelons and peanuts were grown and where some of her happiest memories were made. She treasured the time spent with her mother and grandmother at the family's beloved Rock House, a place that remained close to her heart throughout her life and the setting for countless stories she would tell for years to come.

Glenda was, without question, a daddy's girl—and she was the first to admit that her father spoiled her. She adored him and was happiest when she could be by his side. Growing up on a farm also meant learning to do things at an early age. Glenda was driving by the time she was 12, and one of her favorite stories involved the surplus Army Willys Jeep her father bought after the war. By 14, she was driving that Jeep to school—a fact she continued to tell with considerable pride many decades later.

But the farm girl also loved a trip to the city. Going into Fort Worth with her mother and friends for a day of shopping was always a special occasion and gave Glenda an early appreciation for something she would enjoy throughout her life: getting out, being around people and making a day of it.

She never tired of talking about those years—life on the farm, the Rock House, her parents and grandparents, the Jeep, and all the ways life was different back then. She had a wonderful memory for people and stories, and when Glenda started reminiscing, one story had a way of leading to another. Those stories became part of who she was and, in time, part of the family history she passed along to her children and grandchildren.

Glenda graduated from North Texas State University in 1964, where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority, and began a career that would become an important part of her legacy: teaching elementary school.

She taught at College Street Elementary in Lewisville before stepping away from the classroom to raise her children. In 1985, she returned to teaching and ultimately dedicated more than two decades of her life to educating children.

To her family she was Mom and Grandmother, but to generations of Lewisville children she was Mrs. Smith.

Teaching suited Glenda, and even years after leaving the classroom, Mrs. Smith was never very far beneath the surface. She had definite opinions about how children should be taught and never quite understood some of the changes that came along after she retired. The idea of elementary school without much homework puzzled her. She was shocked that cursive was no longer emphasized, and she could never understand why children weren't expected to memorize their multiplication tables. Some things, as far as Mrs. Smith was concerned, simply didn't need improving.

But behind those strong opinions was a teacher who genuinely cared about her students. Glenda treasured the handmade cards, ornaments, and little gifts her students gave her over the years, holding onto many of them long after the children who made them had grown up. Several of those handmade ornaments remain with the family today and still find their way onto the Christmas tree each year—a small reminder of Mrs. Smith and the many children who passed through her classroom.

And she remembered them. Years later, when Justin or Jordan happened to mention the name of someone who knew her, if that child had once been one of her students, Glenda almost always had a story to tell. A name could bring back a classroom, a personality, something funny that happened, or a memory she had quietly carried with her for decades. Her students may have grown up and moved on, but Mrs. Smith rarely forgot the children she taught.

On August 13, 1964, Glenda married Billy Wayne Smith. Together they built a family and raised their two sons, Justin and Jordan. They shared more than three decades of marriage before Bill's passing on August 20, 1996. Glenda later found companionship and love again, marrying Tom Chiles on June 6, 1999. She and Tom shared a loving relationship until his passing on June 19, 2015.

Friendship and community were always important to Glenda. In the late 1960s, she helped co-found the Lewisville Area Girls Association (LAGA), a women's social club where many of her closest and most enduring friendships were formed. She valued those friendships deeply and knew people throughout the Lewisville community.

Glenda was funny, opinionated, feisty, and unmistakably herself—a redhead in both appearance and spirit. She never needed an introduction to start a conversation and could just as easily find herself talking with a complete stranger in the grocery-store line as with an old friend she had known for decades. She loved to talk, loved to laugh and, most of all, loved a good story.

Glenda found joy in the things she loved, and when she loved something, everyone around her usually knew it. She loved flowers, especially their bright, vibrant colors, and she had a lifelong soft spot for animals—particularly kittens and cats. She could happily spend hours watching animal shows, game shows, and old Westerns, but Tom Cruise and Robert Redford always had a special place on her television screen. She had seen Top Gun and Maverick enough times that her family was fairly certain she knew every line by heart.

And then there were the Dallas Mavericks. When basketball season arrived, few things took priority over tip-off. Glenda was known to leave the dinner table early just to make sure she didn't miss the start of a game. She also served as the family's unofficial sports announcer, keeping anyone who would listen fully informed on exactly how well—or how poorly—the Mavericks were playing. Whether they had asked for the update was beside the point.

She also enjoyed the little indulgences that made life sweeter: root beer, pistachios, chocolate shakes, margaritas, Mexican food and catfish. These were the simple pleasures that, along with a good book, a favorite movie, a Mavericks game, or time spent with people she loved, made Glenda happy.

But nothing gave Glenda greater pride than her family.

She loved being a mother to Justin and Jordan, but becoming a grandmother brought her an entirely new source of joy. To Braden, Karsyn, Kellyn and Kenley, she wasn't Grandmother—she was simply GG. She absolutely adored them, bragged about them often and took tremendous pride in watching each of them grow into their own person. Being their GG was one of the great joys of her life.

During the later years of her life, Glenda had the opportunity to be present for many of the moments that mattered most to her family—the first days of school, cheer competitions, homecoming, sending a grandson off to college, holidays, birthdays and countless ordinary days together. Those ordinary days, as it turns out, became some of the most treasured ones.

Glenda was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2022. She faced the years that followed much the same way she faced everything else in life—with determination, stubbornness, humor and more than a little redheaded feistiness. Through the treatments, the difficult days and the pain that came with them, she never once complained. She simply kept going, quietly enduring whatever came her way with a strength that amazed those around her. Cancer may have occupied the final chapter of her life, but it never defined the life that came before it.

Glenda is survived by her sons, Justin Smith and his wife, Christine, and Jordan Smith and his wife, Erin; her beloved grandchildren, Braden, Karsyn, Kellyn and Kenley; and the many family members, friends, former students, and others whose lives are richer for having known her.

Glenda's story is that of a little redheaded girl growing up on a farm in Proctor, with roots planted deeply in Comanche County; a daddy's girl who was admittedly a little spoiled and very much adored; a teacher known to generations of Lewisville children as Mrs. Smith; a loyal friend who never met a stranger; a woman who loved flowers, animals, Westerns, the Mavericks and a good margarita; a devoted mother; and, to four very special grandchildren, their beloved GG.

She leaves behind 84 years of stories, laughter, friendships, and memories. Some live in the stories she told about growing up in Proctor, some in the classrooms where she was Mrs. Smith, and countless others in the lives of her family and friends. Those stories will continue to be told, just as Glenda would have wanted—with plenty of laughter, a few opinions, and probably a little embellishment along the way.

She was deeply loved, she will be deeply missed, and she will never be forgotten.

The family welcomes memorial donations to the National Breast Cancer Foundation in Glenda's honor.