User:Ggisber

Glenda Gay Isber was born in Houston, Texas June 17, 1962 to Barbara Ann Lillich and George Berry Robbins. Called Gay, she had three sisters Rhonda, Melinda and Brenda.

Gay attended Memorial High School graduating in 1980 and attended Texas Christian University until 1983, transferring to University of Houston to complete her BA in Journalism in 1985.

Gay has been married three times. She had two sons from her first marriage to Franklin M. Cantrell, III. Her two sons are Franklin M. Cantrell, IV (1985) and Griffin Gardener Cantrell (1987) both born in Houston, Texas.

Gay married Kenneth Gerhart Mathis, M.D., J.D. and moved to Pasadena, Texas. When Ken passed away after a long illness Gay was left clearing up a lengthy estate battle between Ken's grown children which took almost four years. Ken was host of the "Ask the Doctor" radio show on KTRH, were Gay worked.

Gay earned an MA in Humanities with an emphasis in Visual Arts from the University of Houston, Clear Lake, 1996 after doing her internship at The Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, and her research component in Rome, Italy.

Gay meet Peter Stephen Isber on an online matching service. Peter was living in Waterloo, Ontario. After a very short courtship (only one week in person) they married. Gay and her two boys moved to Waterloo, Ontario in December 1999.

To entertain herself while she was waiting for immigration status, Gay started painting in the basement laundry room. Her paintings were large and colorful.

Gay purchased a large doctor's home in Waterloo and after renovating it for almost two months, the Peter and her boys settled in to the new neighborhood. That moved changed her life. One of her neighbors was in the arts community and loved Gay's paintings. Gay took the works to the community arts center and displayed a few. It gave her confidence to paint more.

Gay was accepted to the One of a Kind Show and Sale in 2003. It was later that her jewelery was what was selling. In 2004 Gay registered her first company Sugar Beads & Co. and her formal business was launched.

Attending many more artshows and community events to sell her jewelery got a lucky break when she got tickets to the first taping for Martha Stewart after Martha was out of jail. Gay strategically planned to give her long time idol a gift but when Martha saw the box of jewels, decorated with her monogram and with a bracelet to replace her court monitored ankle bracelet, Martha invited her to be interviewed for the show. The media