Author and journalist Gloria Cassity Stargel of Gainesville, Ga., a 1977 Women’s College graduate, died Saturday, March 2. She was 83. Stargel, whose husband, Joe, had been mayor of Gainesville, was a member of the Class of 1950, but she delayed completing degree requirements by more than a quarter of a century.

Devoutly religious Stargel majored in journalism, but she never intended to stray far afield from faith- and Christianity-based themes in her work. However, in some of her early writing she recounted the adventures of her brother, Capt. Oscar Cassity, who as U.S. Air Force pilot after World War II was one of the first aviators to fly heavy transport aircraft to ice-covered runways in Antarctica. Although the petite Brenau graduate never set foot on the continent, the  articles  netted Stargel honorary membership and other commendation from the Old Antarctic Explorers Association. However, her stock-in-trade was her writing on spiritual topics. Many of her articles have been republished in the popular  Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.

In 1982, Stargel’s book, The Healing: One Family’s Victorious Struggle with Cancer, launched her into the world of Christian writing. She was inducted into Brenau’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2003.

Funeral services for are Wednesday, March 6 at 11 a.m., from Lakewood Baptist Church in Gainesville.

To read more about her, see the Summer 2007 Brenau Window article.