|
| |
Our father, grandfather, uncle, and friend, Gilbert Eugene Andrews, was a special person. He was dearly loved by his wife, three children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Although he came from simple beginnings, and grew up during the Depression, he had caring parents whose five boys were the light of their lives. His childhood taught him the importance of hard work, of finding pleasure in simple things, of helping the less fortunate, of family, and it laid the foundation for the good man he became.
Gilbert was born July 26, 1924 to William Irvin and Maude Gracina (Hemstreet) Andrews on a small rented farm in rural Webb, Dewey County, Oklahoma. He was the fourth of their five sons. Gib shared with his brothers Holly, Kenneth, Philip and James a curiosity for how things work, and the mechanical skill to repair broken things. Later, after W.I. went to work for the Camargo elevator, he and Maude bought a bigger farm in the bigger town of Camargo. Their sons had the opportunity to work on tractors, cars, and trucks, and to help their father at the elevator and their mother on the farm. For entertainment Gib rode horses with his friends, swam in nearby gravel pits, shot at tin cans and rabbits, built road-worthy sleds he and his brothers called bugs, played baseball and basketball. They did their homework by kerosene lamp because Camargo did not get electricity until 1935, and took baths in a tin tub in the kitchen because no house in Camargo had running water until 1939. If his parents had money worries, the boys did not know. It was an idyllic childhood, ended abruptly by Pearl Harbor.
Gilbert, salutatorian of his 1942 Camargo High class, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force in July 1943, having passed the pilot test and gained just enough weight to make the 135 pound weight requirement. After basic training in Miami Beach, Gilbert received advanced classes in Cleveland and extended pilot training in San Antonio, Bonham, Denison, and Mission, Texas, receiving his wings in February 1945. After a further month of flight instructor training in Waco, Texas (basically learning to fly from the back seat), Gib returned to Mission, to be a flight instructor there until he was mustered out in December 1945.
After working for a time with a Woodward-based construction company, Gilbert's love of airplanes pulled him to enroll in the Spartan School of Aeronautics and Technology's Aircraft Maintenance program in Tulsa. He graduated a year later, and began a series of aviation-related jobs in the booming Dallas-Fort Worth area, finding work at Convair, Chance-Vaught, and Temco, before being hired in 1959 by American Airlines as a mechanic. He worked for American until his retirement in 1987.
Gilbert was shy, and even though he had known Aaroneta Helm, a pretty Camargo girl 3 years his junior, for most of his life, they did not date until after both had graduated, and he had come back from his service in WWII. They began to exchange letters while Gib was away at Spartan School of Aeronautics and Technology, and a few months after he had graduated in 1949, they were engaged. Once he found work, they were married in the fall of 1950 from her brother's home in Borger, and the newlyweds began their lives together in a tiny downtown Fort Worth apartment. By 1955, they had saved enough to buy a house, and they moved into it that summer with their young daughter and baby son. Their third and last child, a daughter, would be born the next year, completing a happy family.
A simple recital of his life history and accomplishments doesn't begin to describe what made Gilbert so special. He loved his wife Aaroneta for 60 years, taking care of her when she showed signs of Alzheimers, and visiting her every day in her nursing home, once he could no longer care for her at home. He was a hard-working, fair, and fun father, providing rock-solid support to his three children, Ceil, Jeff, and Donna, who were always proud he was their dad.
Having grown up in the Depression, Gib was thrifty about spending on himself, but generous about giving to others. Family visitors could not admire something in his house without being offered it. They could not mention a maintenance problem with a car, or a house, without being offered help physically or financially in repairing it. His memory was phenomenal. He could remember people and events from his very early childhood. He was fascinated by history and archaeology, and wherever he lived or visited, he quickly became an expert in the history of the place. Gib especially loved traveling to Big Bend National Park, and was fascinated by seeing the site of the Battle of Adobe Walls near Amarillo. He loved to share stories of the trips he'd taken and books he'd read about the places he'd seen. He loved baseball and his Texas Rangers, watching game after game each summer, despite their problems winning. Late in life he was amazed by YouTube, and learned to explore places and events and music from his computer chair. He loved an array of dogs, from his childhood's Bill and Bullger to the Toto his children grew up with to the pugs Herkimer and Hennessy who brightened his last years.
Family was important to Gilbert. Having outlived his wife, his parents, all four brothers, all of his cousins, and many dear friends, he was saddened that he had survived so many people he'd loved. In his nineties, though, he lived one day at a time, and enjoyed the chance to know his grandchildren as adults, and to meet his great-grandchildren, in the time he had left. Gib died January 1, 2018, and today he would be embarrassed by this display of affection. He'd say we shouldn't have gone to so much trouble for him, but all of us who loved him would have to disagree, knowing how very much he deserved it.
Memorial Service
Saturday, March 24, 2018
1:30 PM
Vici Chamber of Commerce Community Building
619 Main St.
Vici, OK
73859
This site may be freely linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent.
All rights reserved! Commercial use of material within this site is prohibited!
© 2000-2024 Oklahoma CemeteriesThe information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to Oklahoma Cemeteries to make it available online. This material will always be available at no cost, it will always remain free to the researcher.