Gloria Dietrich tap-danced across nearly nine decades, along the way transmitting her love of dance to countless students.
“She was never one to sit down and tell the girls what to do,” said her daughter, Daria Ehler, 67, of Festus. “She would always dance with the girls, demonstrate the steps. Sometimes they’d just sit and watch her and clap.”
Mrs. Dietrich died March 10 at age 93 of complications from surgery. She founded the Dietrich Dance Studio and enjoyed a teaching career that spanned more than 40 years.
She grew up in Crystal City, one of seven children, with mom a homemaker and dad an electrician for PPG.
“They lived on Chestnut Street,” Daria said. “She would tap all over the house, and I think they realized she had natural talent and needed instruction. So, they drove her up to St. Louis a couple of times a week to take lessons.”
Even as a child, Mrs. Dietrich kept meticulous scrapbooks.
“She had a handwritten account of every performance she ever did,” her daughter said. “Her very first personal appearance was at the Crystal Theater on Jan 29, 1932.
Mrs. Dietrich took tap, tumbling and ballet from the LaBrot School of Dance, under a teacher named Loraine Hauck. She was in a number of shows and plays during her school years.
“She loved to perform,” her daughter said. “Being in plays – that was what she loved to do. Shedanced on the SS President in St. Louis; there is a program from it.”
She knew Melvin Dietrich from childhood.
“She and my dad were the same age – actually, she was three months older and he teased her about that – and they went to Crystal City High School together,” Daria said. “They dated for a short time, and he went into the Navy after high school. She went to work at PPG. As soon as he got home from the service, they were married in January 1947.”
The family lived on 10th Street in Crystal before moving to Festus.
“Dad built the house on Gamel Cemetery Road in 1956,” Daria said. “We lived in the basement for four years while he built the upstairs. He also did wiring on the side for people.”
Mrs. Dietrich was an energetic mother.
“She was a devout Catholic and raised all of us the same way. That was very important to her,” Daria said. “She always wanted us to enjoy life. She was always playing games, even making up games. Every holiday, she’d put little notes around the house for us to find, like a treasure hunt.”
Later, she would put those same talents to use at her dance studio.
“We have a summer dance camp each year,” Daria said. “And she’d make up games that same way. I think the kids loved them more than the dancing!”
Of the four Dietrich children, Daria was the only one to follow in her mother’s dancing shoes.
“When I was little, I took lessons from my cousin, Mary Beth,” she said. “Then there was a strike at PPG and I had to stop. I didn’t start again until I was 25 and my mom asked me for help.”
After her husband died in 1968, Mrs. Dietrich went to work as a secretary for Our Lady Catholic School.
“She decided to start teaching (dance), and started with four students in our family room,” Daria said. “Pretty soon she moved it downstairs.”
In 1981, the Dietrich Dance Studio was built in the family’s back yard.
“The first three years, we held recitals on our back patio,” Daria recalled. “People brought lawn chairs and sat out in the yard.”
Mrs. Dietrich made sure her students got to perform, whether at local places like the Elks Club or at venues in St. Louis.
As they grew, her grandchildren and even great-grandchildren joined the fold.
“My daughters, Vanessa Krieg and Rachel Ehler, danced from the time they were little up through high school,” Daria said. “Vanessa started helping me with the tumbling and tap classes. Her son, Jonah, started dance at about 3, so there were four generations on the stage that year. My mother was so proud.”
In 2013, Mrs. Dietrich had a mild stroke.
“She couldn’t tap anymore because she was afraid she would fall,” Daria said. “That was hard for her. She’d sit in the kitchen chair and do some little routines with her feet, to show me her ideas.”
Family members grew more concerned about her safety, and in 2017 Mrs. Dietrich went to live at the Crystal Oaks assisted living facility.
“She always had a lot of visitors, family and former students,” Daria said. “A lot of the girls would come to see her – it was such a special rapport they had with Mom. They loved her.”
Mrs. Dietrich broke her hip in a fall on Feb. 20 and needed surgery.
“She had a lot of trouble coming out of the anesthesia,” Daria said. “She didn’t open her eyes for four days. She went on hospice, and they allowed her to come back to her own room, which we were so thankful for.”
Daria said her mother will be remembered for her joie de vivre and her love of family – whether biological or her dance family.
“People would send pictures and I would tack them up by her chair so they could be close to her,” Daria said. “She loved them all. She was always so generous with her love, and she inspired so many kids.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.