Myrna Lou Gibson

Myrna Lou Hawkins Roberts Gibson, 78, of Keysville, Va., passed away Jan. 18, 2017 at Marshall Pines Alzheimer’s Special Care Center in Augusta, Ga., following a courageous struggle with Parkinson’s and dementia.

Gibson was born Dec. 15, 1938 in Pulaski, Va.  She graduated from Shenandoah Valley Academy at New Market, Va., in 1955 at age 16, and received a registered nursing degree from Southern Missionary College at Collegedale, Tenn., in 1959.  She also earned a bachelor’s degree in professional arts from St. Joseph College in Maine in 1985.

Gibson enjoyed a long career in health care, working as a registered nurse, director of nurses and nursing home administrator, retiring as administrator of Britthaven Nursing Home in Keysville in 2007.  She loved God and spent much of her time over the past several decades as a member of the Farmville Seventh Day Adventist Church.

She is preceded in death by her parents Owen and Ethel Hawkins of Roanoke, Va.  She is survived by her husband Bill Gibson, brother Alan Hawkins and his wife Oneida, brother Dallas Hawkins, daughters Donna Roberts Merkel and Sheila Roberts Sherwin, and sons Bill Gibson Jr., Jack Roberts Jr., Tim Gibson, and Lee Roberts. She has six grandsons, three granddaughters, and several great grandchildren.  She married her husband Bill in 1970.

Visitation is at noon and funeral services are 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 at the Farmville SDA Church located at 2086 Cumberland Rd, Farmville, VA 23901. Internment will follow at the church cemetery.