Gloria C. Stokes, a retired lieutenant in Maryland's division of corrections, died Feb. 7 of kidney disease at her Pikesville home. She was 84.

Born Gloria Chambers in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Raymond Chambers and Lila Chambers. She was raised on Lafayette Avenue and graduated in 1949 from Frederick Douglass High School. She later took counseling courses at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

As a young woman, she was a cook and domestic worker and was later a youth supervisor at the Montrose School for Girls in Reisterstown.

She later worked at the Rosewood Center in Owings Mills placing mentally challenged adults in the community. In the 1970s, she established and supervised two group homes.

After briefly working as a food service manager at The Baltimore Sun, Ms. Stokes took a job at Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville. She later transferred to the state's division of corrections and became the first woman to serve as dietary supervisor at the all-male Brockbridge Correctional Facility in Jessup, family members said.

She retired from Brockbridge in 1996 with the rank of lieutenant.

Ms. Stokes was an active member of Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Baltimore, where she taught Sunday school, and served two years as chairperson for the church's senior ministry.

In 2002, she joined Mount Sinai Temple Baptist Church in Baltimore, and later became a member of Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Randallstown.

Her second husband, Benjamin Clawson, died in the 1970s. Marriages to Jerry DeNeal and Robert Stokes ended in divorce.

Funeral services for Ms. Stokes will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Union Bethel Church, 8615 Church Lane, Randallstown.

Survivors include a son, the Rev. Marc DeNeal of Winterville, N.C.; five daughters, Camille DeNeal and Cindy Cummings of Baltimore, Deborah DeNeal of Austell, Ga., Renee Frazier of Collierville, Tenn., and Maria Cochran of Winterville, N.C.; a brother, Jerome Stokes of Indianapolis; a sister, Carol Holly of Baltimore; 11 grandchildren; six great grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren.

—fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com