Gloria Layson, a licensed practical nurse who followed a career of patient care with advocacy for children and community, died May 11 in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue. She was 73.

She suffered recent falls but had heart and health problems since the 1990s, her daughter Jacquelyn said.

Mrs. Layson, who directed a charter school for several years, had been talking with others about opening another school, her daughters said.

“She was continuously trying to be an activist in the community,” her daughter said. ”She was outgoing and talkative. She was very education driven. Just a good soul.”

A member of Braden United Methodist Church, Mrs. Layson was a certified lay minister in the Maumee Watershed District of the United Methodist West Ohio Conference. As such, she was called on when a congregation needed someone to preach on a Sunday morning or lead a Bible study, said Morell Fonfield, a longtime friend, Braden member, and a lay minister.

Mrs. Layson regularly attended the annual West Ohio Conference gathering in early June at Lakeside, Ohio.

“Everyone will be missing her this year,” Mrs. Fonfield said.

Mrs. Layson had been a nurse at the former Riverside and Mercy hospitals. After retiring, she became involved in a group Mrs. Fonfield founded, Mothers Outraged Against Drugs. The group also held a Mother’s Day march for several years and offers prayers at the Toledo school district administration building and at individuals schools.

“She was concerned about young people,” Mrs. Fonfield said. “Gloria was a person who really loved people.”

Mrs. Layson, a state-certified prevention specialist and a conflict mediator, ran for the Toledo Board of Education in 1997 but was not elected. She was director of Proficiency Achievement Study Skills Intermediate School for two years. The school was aimed at fifth and sixth graders who failed fourth-grade proficiency tests. The former Lucas County educational service center in 2001 did not renew the school’s operating agreement.

She was born Jan. 7, 1943, to Mildred and Joseph Liggens and grew up in North Toledo. She was a graduate of Woodward High School and afterward received nursing education. She was a graduate of the University of Toledo, where she studied business administration.

For several years, she organized a reunion of North Toledo neighbors, re-creating a time when “blacks and whites went to school together,” her daughter said. “That was the point. To get that camaraderie back together.”

Surviving are her daughters, Stacy Powell and Jacquelyn Layson; brother, Spencer Liggens; sister, Rosa Liggens; eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. today in Braden United Methodist Church, where the body will be after 10:30 a.m. Arrangements are by House of Day Funeral Service.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published May 18, 2016, 4:00 a.m.