Mama Gloria Allen Dies at 76: Listen to Her Last Known Interview
Chicago, many of whom were living on the street."Manners are important to me. You have to know how to talk to a person, listen to them, and have fun with them," Allen said, but this wasn't an ordinary charm school.
She took them under her wing, acting as a mentor to them in almost every aspect of their life and quickly earned the nickname "Mama Gloria." "At first, I didn't like it.
I just didn't like being called nobody's mom. I ain't got no babies and that's the way I would think," she said. "And then I thought about it.
I said, You know what? There's nothing wrong with being called Mama Gloria because I am their mother. I am their mother. They pick up a lot of the things from me."Allen is the subject of the GLAAD Award-nominated documentary, Mama Gloria (now streaming on PBS).
