Gloria Jean LeBlanc died on Nov. 28, 2023 at the Quality Center for Rehabilitation and Healing in Lebanon, Tenn. The cause of death, pulmonary embolism, was confirmed by her daughter, Mary Sherman. Gloria was 71.
The daughter of Mary Lenore Boots and Hersheal King, Jean, as she was known throughout her life, was born on June 14, 1952 in New Orleans, where she grew up. In high school she played clarinet and alto saxophone and was a majorette in the marching band, which performed in many Mardi Gras parades. Her love of music and of photography stayed with her throughout her life.
After high school, Jean trained dogs while she and Herbert LeBlanc lived together for a few years. They married in 1974 and divorced seven months later. Mary was born in 1975.
With her friend and longtime companion Linda Ersoy, Jean settled in Watertown in 1984 to start a business. Drawn to the cultural life of Provincetown, the two friends and Jean’s daughter relocated to the Cape tip and opened Wash Day Blues, the town’s first full-service dry cleaning and laundry business.
That laundry “was a real family business,” Mary said, “and we all worked very hard, sometimes through the night.” They picked up laundry from hotels and guest houses and delivered it when it was done. “We even did the dry cleaning and laundry for the cast of Tough Guys Don’t Dance,” the Norman Mailer mystery starring Ryan O’Neal and filmed in Provincetown in 1987, Mary said. The movie bombed at the box office.
In addition to running the laundry, Jean showed dogs throughout the Cape and in Rhode Island; she worked with cocker spaniels. After 10 years of operating the laundry, Jean closed the business and relocated to Tennessee.
She lived an active life there. Through friends she knew in the music industry, she appeared as an extra in music videos by Winona Judd, Joe Diffe, and Trace Atkins, among others. She also trained and showed horses and continued to work with dogs. “My mom was always passionate about animals, and that passion rubbed off on me,” Mary said.
Jean loved playing video games, especially World of Warcraft. “She was into mythical things,” Mary said, “and she would play for hours, sometimes all night.” When her grandchildren were old enough to play, Jean made up characters for them, and she would participate when they played but stay in the background, intervening when the game got a little rough.
Jean was “always a giver,” Mary said. “She would give you the shirt off her back and go home naked. She was generous almost to a fault.”
Jean is survived by daughter Mary and husband Dennis Sherman of Lebanon, Tenn.; grandchildren Brandon Browne of Truro, Joseph Browne of Lebanon, Corey Sherman of Lebanon, and Erica Pendleton of Houston, Texas; close friend Candi Enoch of Lebanon; and John David Browne of Truro, her former son-in-law and father of grandsons Brandon and Joseph.
She was predeceased by Mary’s father, Herbert LeBlanc; longtime companion Billie Firestone; and parents Mary and Hersheal King.
The family received friends at Sellars Funeral Home in Lebanon on Dec. 5 and 6.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Jean’s name can be made to support first responders through the Provincetown Fire Dept.
