Lady Gloria Howard Free

Ms. Gloria Howard Free, 91, known affectionately as “Lady Gloria,” left this physical plane on February 24, 2025.

She was born June 17, 1933 in Asheville to the late Mary Weaver “Sister Weaver,” and Hazel Herman Howard.

Gloria loved calling Asheville her home. She was an alumna of Stephens-Lee High School class of 1951. As a teenager, she worked at the YMI Drugstore on the corner of Eagle and Market Streets, known as “the Block.”

She attended Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC, graduating in 1955 with a degree in English and Spanish. Ms. Gloria was an English and Spanish teacher in Asheville City Schools, at South French Broad High School, and Stephens-Lee High School.

She later attended Western Carolina University and became a certified speech therapist for Asheville City Schools and the western North Carolina region. She was also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Gloria also co-founded the Friends of the YMI Cultural Center. Her proudest accomplishment is that she was the originator of the Asheville Goombay Festival, which celebrates African and African American culture through art, music, food, and spirit. Gloria was inspired when she attended Goombay Night on a Carribean trip with the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 1974. She brought the idea back to Asheville where she worked with other key members of the YMI Cultural Center to make it a reality. The first festival was held in 1982.

Gloria lived each day with gratitude and a joyful heart, seeing beauty everywhere and in everyone she met. She uplifted all those she came in contact with by acknowledging their gifts and talents, encouraging their dreams, and seeing in each their highest potential.

She was a passionate communicator, often enthusiastically greeting those she met as ‘Wonder Woman,’ or ‘Wonder Man.’ She appreciated positivity and direct communication from those she connected with. She was a respected and beloved community leader. Gloria was a highly spiritual person; a thinker, a friend, a woman of action, a giver, a wisdom keeper, and a lover of life, nature, and all humanity. She walked the walk, and whenever possible she took the opportunity to clap, sing, and dance to music she loved.

Gloria was a beloved figure in the West End Clingman Avenue Neighborhood (WECAN). The Haywood Street Community Development Group will name the first affordable housing apartments in Asheville after her—the Lady Gloria Ridge Community, due to open to residents in November 2025.

A Celebration of Life service was held for Ms. Gloria Howard Free on Saturday, March 8 at 1 p.m. at the Center for Spiritual Living in Asheville.