Thomas "Woodrow" Gibbons
Dec 23, 1912 - Nov 10, 2011
Posted by Jo Aguirre

Harmon County Funeral Home

Thomas “Woodrow” Gibbons, 98, of Kingston, Oklahoma passed away Thursday, November 10, 2011, at Colby, Kansas. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m., Sunday, November 13, 2011, at the Gould Church of Christ with Pastor Gary Baird, nephew, officiating. Interment will follow at Liberty Cemetery, south of Gould, Oklahoma, under the direction of Harmon County Funeral Home, in Hollis.

Woodrow Gibbons was born in Gould, Oklahoma on December 23, 1912 to James Allen and Vida Pearl (Hill) Gibbons. He married Louise Baird, in Altus, on October 7, 1937. He attended LaHoma School and graduated from Gould High School in 1932. He enjoyed athletics and played all sports, including basketball, tennis, track and football. Many stories were handed down to his family, from his love of basketball. In 1931, his basketball team played Tulsa, in the state tournament semi-finals, in Oklahoma City. In 1932, he was named to three all-tournament basketball teams during his senior year. After he and Loiuse married, they moved to Morton, Texas where they farmed, in the area, for five years. While farming in Texas, he purchased a Five Foot Allis Chalmers combine to cut his and his neighbor’s crops. The first year he made more money harvesting than farming. In 1945, the family moved to Gould, Oklahoma where he continued custom harvesting for forty years. Woodrow was one of the first to own and operate a cotton picker in Harmon County, which he shipped by train, to South Texas to pick cotton. Later, while cutting wheat in the Oklahoma Panhandle, he saw a growth in feedlots and was one of the first to purchase a corn chopper; and, thus, provided corn for several feedlots including Grounds Feedlots and Hitchland Feedlots. In the early eighties, he and Louise retired to Lake Texoma, Oklahoma, for fishing and entertaining family and friends. Their children and spouses, grandchildren, great grandchildren along with other family members and friends have enjoyed many fish dinners cooked by Louise.

Mr. Gibbons is survived by two daughters, Sarah Garton and husband Max of Amarillo, Texas and Nita Finn of Atwood, Kansas; one son, James Coy Gibbons of Wichita, Kansas; one daughter-in-law, Cassandra (Ruyle) Gibbons of Oklahoma City; eleven grandchildren; eleven great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren along with many other relatives and friends.

Woodrow was preceded in death by his parents; two bothers, J.M. Gibbons and Roy White Gibbons; his wife, Louise; one son, Woody Dean Gibbons; one grandson, Shawn Paul Gibbons and a son-in-law, Jim Finn.

In lieu of flowers, the family request memorials be made to the Gould Church of Christ in memory of Woodrow Gibbons.

Online tributes may be made to the family at Harmon County Funeral Home