Obit – Mr. Jerry Gibbs
A longtime Smith County Commissioner, Mr. Jerry Gibbs age 84 of the Hiwassee Community, went home to be with the Lord at 8:58 a.m. Wednesday morning October 30, 2024. He was admitted to the Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital on Tuesday afternoon October 29th suffering from kidney failure.
Funeral services from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home were conducted by Eld. Junior Dickerson assisted by Eld. Anthony Dixon on Monday morning November 4th at 11 a.m. Burial followed in the Gibbs family lot in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
He was born Jerry Edwin Gibbs in the Club Springs Community on August 14, 1940 and was the third of six sons born to the late James Hallie Gibbs Sr. who died at the age of 71 on July 3, 1983 and Annie Mildred Bellar Gibbs who died at the age of 94 on November 1, 2011.
The three brothers preceding him in death were; James Hallie (Buster) Gibbs Jr. who died December 3, 1993 at the age of 58, Beverly Hugh (Bevo) Gibbs who died January 14, 2000 at the age of 63, George Wilson Gibbs who died October 28, 2006 at the age of 60
At the age of 16 he was saved at the Plunketts Creek Missionary Baptist Church in the Rock City Community.
Mr. Gibbs was a 1958 graduate at Smith County High School. His major was science and minor was Trades and Industrial. He played football his freshman and sophomore year and was in the chorus his sophomore and junior years.
Jerry had a whimsical sense of humor and it was stated of him in the “58 Owl”; “Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water the day after.”
In the Rome Community on October 16, 1960, he was united in marriage to the former Mary Katherine Page.
Jerry was a man of many talents. Right after high school he worked at the rubber plant in Lebanon and then at Ross Gear.
He quickly knew factory work was not for him and began working at Cumberland Supply Co. in South Carthage and then with his father building roads. He worked on the road from Granville to Cookeville.
He then began construction and built many homes in the Rock City/Rome area while working for Robert Certain Construction Co. He was also part of the team that built the Buffalo Valley Rest Area visitors center.
Mr. Gibbs continued that work until 1994 when he was employed with the State of Tennessee as a groundskeeper for the Buffalo Valley Rest Area. During this time, he also began driving a bus for the Smith County School System, which he continued for nine years. He often drove the Owls football bus to away games and is still remembered fondly by many of his bus riding students.
Following retirement from the State of Tennessee, he was employed for seventeen years as a groundskeeper for the Wilson County Fairgrounds. He remained in that position until he was in his mid-70’s.
Mr. Gibbs loved being outside. His passion in his younger days was playing baseball and softball. He played both in Lebanon and Carthage for nine years and was an umpire for several years after he stopped playing.
He also loved playing golf and played the game well into his 70’s. He was a lifelong hunter and fisherman.
Another hobby he enjoyed was hunting for arrowheads and rocks from his childhood days until he was unable to due to declining health.
Surviving in addition to his wife Mary of just over sixty four years are their three children, Russell Gibbs and wife Janice, Johnny Gibbs and wife Ann, Joy Myatt and husband Thad all of the Rock City Community; two brothers also survive, Glen Gibbs and wife Carol Beasley Gibbs of the Rome Community, David Gibbs and wife Cindy Montgomery Gibbs of Lebanon; six grandchildren, Jarred Derflinger and wife Alexis of Carthage, Jacob Derflinger of Gallatin, Madison Myatt and James Russell Gibbs both of the Rock City Community, Madison Nowak of the Lock Seven Community and Haley Nowak both of the Rock City Community; three great-grandchildren, Kimber Derflinger of Carthage, Cameron Gary of the Lock Seven Community, Alissa Bain of the Rock City Community.
The Gibbs family requests memorials to the Plunketts Creek Missionary Baptist Church.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
