Marla Louise (Brumley) Gretka

Marla Louis Brumley Gretka was born on June 21, 1967 in Caliente, Nevada to Lee Calvin Brumley and Betty Davis Brumley.

Her father was on deployment in Vietnam with the United States Army at the time of her birth, so she never got the opportunity of meeting her father until she was 5 months old.

Due to her father working for Nevada Dept. of Transportation, Marla, her sister Kelly and their parents lived in various towns in Nevada, including Ely, Carson City and Las Vegas.

She entered school while living in Carson City, attended schools in Las Vegas, Elko and eventually graduated from high school at Ely, Nevada in May of 1985. While attending Junior High School in Las Vegas she formed a lasting friendship with Kirk Gretka.

In 1983, Marla, her sister and their parents moved to Ely, Nevada to make their home, due to her father’s transfer of employment with his employer. After her graduation from high school, Marla made the decision to move back to Las Vegas. Thru her years of growing up, she had made a number of friends there, so decided to go back there to live.

She and Kirk re-kindled their friendship and were joined in marriage on September 12, 1987. From this union, Kirk and Marla were blessed with the birth of their two sons, Chance Ryan on March 10, 1988 and Zachary Kirk on November 29, 1989.

With her boys starting to grow up, Marla decided to start on a career for herself, so she entered the Manicure/Nail Tech program at Academy of Hair Design in September of 1992. She completed the program on April 9, 1993, and received her State Board license immediately after that. She had an outstanding career in the nail business which she did until September of 2016. She loved her business, worked at various salons in the Las Vegas area and made numerous lasting friendships thru the years.

Kirk and Marla grew tired of the long summer heat in Las Vegas, so they decided to purchase a cabin in the mountains of Utah for their weekend getaways. They own a beautiful log cabin tucked away among the tall pine trees, with the fresh mountain breeze, the deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks and numerous wild birds. This was her paradise, her dream. She truly loved waking up in the morning with a fresh cup of coffee, relaxing in her rocking chair and watching all of the wildlife and critters scurrying around and feasting on all of the food she had put out for them. She spent many hours watching them, and enjoyed visiting with their wonderful neighbor friends, Frank and Trude Jackson. She and Kirk made lasting memories of their fishing trips on the mountain and the excursion trips they took on their ATV.

Marla had a love for animals. She dearly loved her dog, Jasmin, and now little Bristol. She would often go in search of a new home for a homeless animal or one that a friend was unable to keep. She always found a new loving home for it with one of her clients or friends.

Marla had a natural gift for decorating. She enjoyed decorating her home, their cabin, shopping for bargains on Craig’s List, getting ideas from Home and Garden TV, and Chip and Johanna Gaines. She had a talent for refinishing furniture and turning junk into treasures. Her dream was to someday purchase fixer upper homes, re-model them and re-sale them. She loved shopping yard sales, thrift stores and estate sales and coming home proud of the bargains she had made.

Marla is survived by her loving husband of 30 years, Kirk Gretka; sons Chance Ryan Gretka and Zachary Kirk Gretka; little dog Bristol; brother-in-law Erik Gretka. Her father Lee Brumley (Kathy), mother Betty Rhoades (Ray), sister Kelly Allred (Zach), numerous step siblings and nieces and nephews.

We love you, Marla and you will forever be missed by all of your family and friends.

Graveside services will be held at the Conaway Veterans Cemetery on Monday, March 13, 2017 under the direction of Southern Nevada Mortuary.