Gloria Root
| Gloria Root | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Claudia Jennings |
| Succeeded by | Jill Taylor |
| Personal details | |
| Height | 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) |
Gloria Root (May 28, 1948 in Chicago — January 8, 2006 in San Francisco) was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for the December 1969 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Pompeo Posar. She was the first Playmate to show pubic hair on her centerfold (although hardly visible), official sources give the credit to Liv Lindeland (Miss January 1971).
Biography
Before her Playboy appearance she worked as a telephone company service representative in Chicago.
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Gloria started her higher education at the University of Illinois, but later transferred to Northwestern University, to major in political science. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with degrees in fine arts and architecture. She then took a Master's Degree in City Planning and Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
Drug offense
With the money she received from Playboy she decided to tour Europe. Root went to Afghanistan, traveled to Turkey, and then to Greece. In January 1970, Root was detained in a Greek jail on a charge of marijuana smuggling. She was arrested with her boyfriend, Cory Parker, in a Volkswagen loaded with 17.5 kilos of hashish, then valued at $50,000. Meanwhile the Playboy was published featuring her, and the prosecutor waved it around to show she was an immoral woman. She was sentenced to eighteen months in jail. Parker received a term of five years.
Both appealed their sentences. While imprisoned in Corfu, Greece the Playmate was interviewed by journalist Georgie Anne Geyer. Root denied knowing about the hashish, which was located beneath the car seat. She disclosed that her boyfriend knew it was there. She told Geyer that even if she had known about it, "I wouldn't have done anything about it. I'm not sorry we did it but I'm sorry we got caught." Cory, meanwhile, was sent to a tiny prison island - no bars, just sea - to serve his sentence. After a while he simply started swimming, and was eventually picked up by a fishing boat. The couple reunited and moved to Providence when Gloria started at RISD. Cory moved back to Chicago after a few months to get into night club management. Gloria attracted a string of men who like Cory were all slender, darkhaired and mustached. At RISD she studied architecture, starting with the difficult sophomore year. Gloria spoke of her lesbian flings with French starlets on the Cote d'Azur, before they went to Turkey.
Geyer talked with Root's parents who lived in Flossmoor, Illinois. They were worried that their daughter was sick. Root said she was alright but had run out of birth control pills shortly after her arrest, and feared she might become pregnant because she was upset. In jail she was occasionally allowed to walk outside in a small courtyard. She claimed to have ample funds on hand remaining from her Playmate pictorial fee. Root believed her problems began when she worked with the telephone company. "I was bored to death. I couldn't stand it. Then one day I tried methadrine, and I just never went back to work again."
Career
In 1980, she opened her own planning firm, Planning Analysis and Development, in San Francisco. She headed the firm until 1998, when she relocated to New York. While in New York, Gloria headed the strategic planning services division of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. She returned to San Francisco in 2002 to take a job as a project manager for Auberge Resorts. She later took a senior position with RBF Consulting.
From 1990 to 1998, Gloria was a board member of San Francisco Urban Planning + Research Association, a public-policy think-tank promoting good government and sustainable urban planning.
Private life
She was married to Richard Dodson in 1984; they were divorced at the time of her death. Her daughter, Francesca, was born in 1986.
Death
Gloria Root died of cancer in 2006.
References
- "Playmate Tells of Life in Greek Jail". Los Angeles Times. 1970-01-18. p. A7.
- "Gloria M. Root". San Francisco Chronicle. 2006-01-22. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
Gloria Root's Obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle