Career
Gleason was also a civic worker who was active in film colony projects. Gleason was a native of Pasadena, California. The Gleasons realized stage success in New York City in a production of The Shannons of Broadway.
The play was later made into a film entitled Goodbye Broadway.
In 1947 she was named Mother of 1947 in a Mother"s Day observance conducted by the United States.O. In the 1930s Gleason served on the advisory board of the Federal Theater Project. On several occasions she was an unsuccessful candidate for political office.
In 1944 Gleason ran for the Assembly from the 59th District in California. In 1946 she was defeated by then incumbent Secretary of State Frank Jordan.
Gleason died in her sleep, apparently of heart disease in 1947, aged 59, at her home in Brentwood, California.
On December 26, 1945, the younger Gleason was in New York City awaiting deployment to Europe with his regiment, when he fell out of a fourth story window in the Hotel Sutton, which the army had commandeered to house the troops, resulting in his death. Reports varied, some saying the fall was accidental, while others stating it was a suicide.
