Gloria Labrado Everett’s life has not been easy, but through her challenges she’s been able to keep a positive attitude and learn from her mistakes.
Labrado-Everett would have graduated in the DHS class of 1994, but she became pregnant when she was a freshman and dropped out her sophomore year. That same year she married her first husband.
Her parents had moved to Skiatook, Oklahoma, and after leaving school, Labrado-Everett followed them to help take care of her father, who was suffering from heart problems.
For the next few years she moved back and forth between Oklahoma and Texas, taking jobs at nursing homes and restaurants to support herself and her family. She tried to go back to school, but her family obligations kept her from finishing.
Her first long-term job was working for her parents, who were running a motel in Oklahoma. “It was different than anything I expected,” she said. “I had done housekeeping and laundry and all of that in nursing homes, and I figured it would be about the same, but it wasn’t.”
She stayed at the motel for two years before moving again. After a few years, Labrado-Everett’s marriage became abusive, and she left her husband. Now a single mom, she worked three jobs in Tulsa to support her kids.
She moved back to Texas again and lived in Comanche, working at local Dairy Queens and Bigs in Dublin.
In 2023, Labrado-Everett went to prison following a domestic dispute, and spent 9 months there. Her time incarcerated gave her distance from another abusive relationship, and helped her realize how to improve her life. “It helped me grow up a lot, and I’m more mature and have less of an attitude and less anger,” she said.
She’s currently living in a halfway house in Beaumont, which will help her transition back to normal life. Once she’s out, she plans to move to Stephenville with her fiance Jason Murray.
Labrado-Everett has three children: Juan, 34, James, 30 and Madeleine, 27. Her father, Frank Labrado, passed away in 2020. Her mother, Susan Labrado, lives in Proctor.
Labrado-Everett has remained in touch with many of her Dublin classmates. “I’m still friends with just about everybody which is cool,” she said. “And even some people that I didn’t get along with are messaging me and seeing how I’m doing.”
Throughout her life, Labrado-Everett has been able to lean on her faith. “My greatest inspiration is not only God — it’s reading the Bible and praying and just believing,” she said.
Labrado-Everett offers the following advice to Dublin graduates: “You can do anything you put your mind to,” she said. “Just stick with it and keep going. You may need to take breaks from it, but just stick to it if that’s really what you want.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@ dublincitizen. com.