Teresa Gleaton is an artist, working in water colors and graphite. She’s been making and selling jewelry for 14 years and now she has found a way to turn it into a labor of love and make a little money at the same time.
Several months ago, she was able to take advantage of the Choo Choo Market after it began in downtown Brewton. She said the venue gives her the perfect opportunity to use that interest in making jewelry. In fact, she thinks highly of the Choo Choo Market, saying it is giving a number of people a way to show off their talents.
“There are those who are known for their skills, but many of those who set up at Choo Choo are expressing themselves for the first time,” she said. “I didn’t know about some of them until we all got together.
“Connie Baggett, as the director of program and affairs for Brewton, is the one to coordinate upcoming events to be held in Brewton,” she added. “She has brought a group of us together when something is coming up so that we can bounce ideas off of each other. This has been the case at the ‘the Wash Hole Jam’ and ‘Twin Creek Combine.’ While others attend to the entertainment and food, we furnish arts and crafts to the events.”
One of her latest additions to add to her long list of interests is the incorporation of items that had belonged to her late mother-in-law, Gail Gleaton. Gail had a great love of costume jewelry, including a huge box of earrings. After Gail’s death in 2008, the family met to go through her things. The large box of earrings was discovered and Gleaton’s interest in jewelry took over. She is turning those earrings into something with new purpose, and marketing them as “Gail’s Gifts.”
“Gail loved jewelry, the bigger the better,” said Gleaton. “I thought it would be good to repurpose them and spread her memories to others.”
She is doing just that by incorporating the jewelry into something new that expresses Gail’s love of God and family to share with others.
She is a hometown gir. She attended Pollard-McCall School and graduated from W.S. Neal High School. She described herself as being a “bit Bohemian” and “hippy.” She is a stay-at-home wife and mother, but that has not always been the case. After graduating from high school she attended Jefferson Davis Community College, earning a nursing degree. She would later use her creative ability to obtain a degree in theatre from Alabama State University in Montgomery.
“After I got my nursing degree, I worked in several different places,” she said. “I worked in home health care, hospice and in the nursing home. I love those older people and they are usually fun to be around.I worked for 28 years in my nursing profession.”
She retired about 14 months ago and she is loving being at home.
“Nursing can be so stressful,” she said. “That is true working with those who are elderly and incapacitated. Although it is rewarding, I needed a break. It takes a toll on you.”
She married Jason Gleaton on April Fool’s Day in 1997 and is the mother of two children, Morgan and McKenna. She loves the theatre and was actively involved for a while with the local theatre group, until it was disbanded.
“There were those of us who are interested in still having a theatre group, but the college couldn’t commit to our use of the auditorium,” she said. “It’s a shame because I believe we have enough interest here in Brewton to carry a theatre group.”