JOAN POLLOCK GIBBS

Joan Frances Pollock Gibbs, age 81, beloved wife of retired Lt. Col. Charles Alfred Gibbs, died on Saturday, May 24, 2014, at National Health Care in Sumter.

Born on Dec. 11, 1932, in Jefferson, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Gibbs was the daughter of the late Homer Ronald Pollock and the late Mary Kendall Pollock Brookes. Mrs. Gibbs graduated from Jefferson District High School in 1950 and attended Millersville State Teachers College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After completion of her freshman year, Mrs. Gibbs transferred to Pennsylvania State University, where she majored in home economics. She became a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority and graduated from Penn State on June 7, 1954. Joan married Chuck Gibbs on June 19, 1954, in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania.

Moving from Japan to Sumter with her husband and family in 1964, Joan became a member of Swan Lake Presbyterian Church. After a second overseas tour, Joan returned to Sumter and taught home economics at Sumter High School for more than 20 years. Joan was a Past Regent of the Sumter Home Chapter, D.A.R. She was a member of a local bridge club, played canasta, enjoyed golf and participated in many local organizations. Joan sang in her church choir and loved to read, sew and cross stitch. However, her favorite times in life were spent with her children and grandchildren.

Mrs. Gibbs will be remembered as a loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She will be dearly missed by all who knew her.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Gibbs is survived by: three daughters, Susan Gibbs Allgood and her husband, David, of Fort Worth, Texas, Laura Gibbs Baker and her husband, Alpheus, of Sumter, and Edith Gibbs Gamble and her husband, Larry, of Franklin, Wisconsin; seven grandchildren, Phillip Simon Allgood and his wife, Katherine, of Huntington, West Virginia, Sandra Elizabeth "Betsy" Allgood Watson and her husband, Blake, of Asheville, North Carolina, Mary Frances Baker Capers and her husband, Demetrius, of Sumter, Alpheus James "Jimmy" Baker III of Sumter, Whitney Amanda Gamble of Chicago, Illinois, Theresa Hays Gamble of Franklin, Wisconsin, and William Lawrence "Billy" Gamble Jr. of Franklin; one stepbrother, Richard Brookes and his wife, Jean, of Sumter; and one sister in-law, Nancy Pollock, of Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

In addition to her parents, Mrs. Gibbs was preceded in death by: one brother, David Ronald Pollock, and her stepfather, J. Allan Brookes.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday at 10 a.m. in Swan Lake Presbyterian Church with Pastor Chuck Staggs officiating. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery.

The family will receive friends on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bullock Funeral Home and at other times at her home in Sumter.

Memorials may be made to Swan Lake Presbyterian Church, 912 Haynesworth St., Sumter, SC 29150, or to Tamassee DAR School, PO Box 8, Tamassee, SC 29686

You may sign the family's guest book at www.bullockfuneralhome.com.

The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home of Sumter for the arrangements.