Gloria Jean DYSON

1934 - 2008  (74 years)

• Name	Gloria Jean DYSON  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  Birth	26 Mar 1934	Summerton, Clarendon County, South Carolina   [3]
  Gender	Female
  HIST	Donations can be made to The Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation, 3050 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 605, Miami, FL 33137 She died after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. At death- she had 6 grandchildren- Lexi, Troy, Nathan, Taylor, Kelly and Blake- who are their parents? jkh Posted on Sat, May. 24, 2008 Alzheimer’s takes ‘sterling’ woman By CZERNE M. REID - czreid@thestate.com “Jeepers.” Carlos Gibbons called his wife by her nickname as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open as she lay in her hospice bed. She looked at him for a moment, then closed her eyes again. He talked with her for a little while longer, then left for home. Within five minutes, a nurse called to say his wife had died. “I honestly believe that she was waiting for me to tell her goodbye so she could let go and be gone,” Gibbons said, sobbing. Gloria Jean Gibbons, whom everyone called “Jean,” died Thursday after a brave and open struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 72. She leaves behind two daughters, television personality Leeza Gibbons and Cammy Gibbons, and son, Carlos Gibbons Jr. “I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have been there just before she died,” said Carlos Gibbons, former director of the S.C. Education Association. He led the organization at the start of school desegregation in the state. Gibbons used to go to the hospice every morning and evening to feed his wife of 55 years. Family members and friends expressed bittersweet emotions for Jean Gibbons. “It’s really an answered prayer for her to be released from this torture of her mind,” Leeza Gibbons said. “It was unbearably cruel to see her disappear for so many years.” Jean Gibbons was in her 60s when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s-related dementia. She started forgetting things, but began to really take notice when she paid the same utility bill three times without realizing it. Gibbons had been the CEO of her family, taking care of financial matters, chaperoning the children and their friends on beach trips, and taxiing them to work as candy stripers at a South Carolina hospital. Her sparkly personality bubbled over into the clothes she wore — gold tennis shoes, gypsy jewelry and little caps. “She was a great mom, but she was just a little offbeat,” Leeza Gibbons said. Her mother was the one who would take belly dancing lessons or take a leopard-skin bikini with her when she first went to live at a nursing home. Jean Gibbons loved to sit on the back porch at her home and watch the clouds gather as storms rolled in. As her own storm came, she opened up about her struggle. She recorded a public service announcement telling people about Alzheimer’s and encouraging them to seek help. “My mother was very courageous in her battle,” Leeza Gibbons said. “She didn’t want to be silenced or stigmatized by her diagnosis.” Leeza Gibbons promised her mother she would tell her story. She does so through a nonprofit organization called Leeza’s Place that provides support and resources for caregivers around the country whose loved ones have Alzheimer’s disease. Glenna Ackerman met Jean Gibbons more than four decades ago, when their husbands both worked for the S.C. Education Association. “We just hit it off right away,” she said. Ackerman remembers her as the center of attention, wherever she went. They watched over each other’s children and traveled together. Ackerman said Jean Gibbons always rose to the occasion, whether it was in raising her children, or in being the sparkling hostess or traveling partner for her husband as he represented the Education Association. She could host a fancy party one day, and pull a worm from a can and bait a fishing hook the next, Carlos Gibbons said. “She was sophisticated when she needed to be sophisticated, and she could be common as an old shoe when she needed to do that,” he said. One of his favorite photos of his wife is a 1952 snapshot of her in three-inch heels in her Sunday best, in a little john boat. “She was just a sterling example of womanhood,” he said. Reach Reid at (803) 771-8378.    [1, 2]
  HIST	Donations can be made to The Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation, 3050 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 605, Miami, FL 33137 She died after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. At death- she had 6 grandchildren- Lexi, Troy, Nathan, Taylor, Kelly and Blake- who are their parents? jkh Posted on Sat, May. 24, 2008 Alzheimer’s takes ‘sterling’ woman By CZERNE M. REID - czreid@thestate.com “Jeepers.” Carlos Gibbons called his wife by her nickname as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open as she lay in her hospice bed. She looked at him for a moment, then closed her eyes again. He talked with her for a little while longer, then left for home. Within five minutes, a nurse called to say his wife had died. “I honestly believe that she was waiting for me to tell her goodbye so she could let go and be gone,” Gibbons said, sobbing. Gloria Jean Gibbons, whom everyone called “Jean,” died Thursday after a brave and open struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 72. She leaves behind two daughters, television personality Leeza Gibbons and Cammy Gibbons, and son, Carlos Gibbons Jr. “I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have been there just before she died,” said Carlos Gibbons, former director of the S.C. Education Association. He led the organization at the start of school desegregation in the state. Gibbons used to go to the hospice every morning and evening to feed his wife of 55 years. Family members and friends expressed bittersweet emotions for Jean Gibbons. “It’s really an answered prayer for her to be released from this torture of her mind,” Leeza Gibbons said. “It was unbearably cruel to see her disappear for so many years.” Jean Gibbons was in her 60s when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s-related dementia. She started forgetting things, but began to really take notice when she paid the same utility bill three times without realizing it. Gibbons had been the CEO of her family, taking care of financial matters, chaperoning the children and their friends on beach trips, and taxiing them to work as candy stripers at a South Carolina hospital. Her sparkly personality bubbled over into the clothes she wore — gold tennis shoes, gypsy jewelry and little caps. “She was a great mom, but she was just a little offbeat,” Leeza Gibbons said. Her mother was the one who would take belly dancing lessons or take a leopard-skin bikini with her when she first went to live at a nursing home. Jean Gibbons loved to sit on the back porch at her home and watch the clouds gather as storms rolled in. As her own storm came, she opened up about her struggle. She recorded a public service announcement telling people about Alzheimer’s and encouraging them to seek help. “My mother was very courageous in her battle,” Leeza Gibbons said. “She didn’t want to be silenced or stigmatized by her diagnosis.” Leeza Gibbons promised her mother she would tell her story. She does so through a nonprofit organization called Leeza’s Place that provides support and resources for caregivers around the country whose loved ones have Alzheimer’s disease. Glenna Ackerman met Jean Gibbons more than four decades ago, when their husbands both worked for the S.C. Education Association. “We just hit it off right away,” she said. Ackerman remembers her as the center of attention, wherever she went. They watched over each other’s children and traveled together. Ackerman said Jean Gibbons always rose to the occasion, whether it was in raising her children, or in being the sparkling hostess or traveling partner for her husband as he represented the Education Association. She could host a fancy party one day, and pull a worm from a can and bait a fishing hook the next, Carlos Gibbons said. “She was sophisticated when she needed to be sophisticated, and she could be common as an old shoe when she needed to do that,” he said. One of his favorite photos of his wife is a 1952 snapshot of her in three-inch heels in her Sunday best, in a little john boat. “She was just a sterling example of womanhood,” he said. Reach Reid at (803) 771-8378.
  _UID	1B0535F84B044568BF12F9DEAB1C82548E7D
  _UID	1B0535F84B044568BF12F9DEAB1C82548E7D
  Death	22 May 2008
  Burial	25 May 2008	Bush River Memorial Gardens, Richland County, South Carolina   [1]
  	Caughman Harman Funeral Home, Irmo/st. Andrews Chapel, 5400 Bush River ROad, Columbia, South Carolina Caughman Harman Funeral Home, Irmo/st. Andrews Chapel, 5400 Bush River ROad, Columbia, South Carolina
  Person ID	I224322	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	4 Apr 2010

  
  

  Father	Stephen Leon DYSON
  Mother	Marie CORBETT
  _UID	3C68A9660209474FB59F892D3EA74551D92C
  _UID	3C68A9660209474FB59F892D3EA74551D92C
  Family ID	F151701	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Living
  Children	1. Living   2. Living   3. Living
  Family ID	F151700	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	7 Jul 2008

  
  

• Sources

  [S10623] Gloria Jean Gibbons. [S10625] Alzheimer’s takes ‘sterling’ woman. [S582] Laura Gibbons Hersperger, (McNaughton-Gunn, Inc. Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106), page 238. [S14017] page 60.