Viola P. Gibson
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Graveside service for Viola P. Gibson will be 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at Highland Cemetery, Lawton, Oklahoma with special friend, Patra Priest of Lawton, officiating.
The family will greet friends from 4-6 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.
Arrangements are under the direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.
Viola P. Gibson, 93, Lawton, Oklahoma passed away Tuesday, October 19, 2021 in Lawton. She was born on a dairy farm on March 17, 1928 in Lawton, Oklahoma to Earl Brown and Hattie I. (Peters) Porter. Being born on St. Patrick's Day and being part Irish, she was proud to be a Leprechaun baby. Viola graduated from Cache High School in 1944 at the age of 16. She then began her 46-year teaching career. She received her bachelor's degree in education from Oklahoma Women's College in Chickasha while both working as a teacher and being a single parent of two children - William Earl and Janis. Viola taught elementary school for 22 years with Lawton Public Schools. She was especially fond of her students at Bishop Elementary and had many stories of her time there that she shared with many of her friends and even strangers. In her 93 years of life, she only took time away from Lawton for five years to travel with her family to Army duty stations in California and Italy. While in Italy for two years, she taught classes for enlisted Army personnel.
Once she returned, she opened a laundry mat and a health food store here in Lawton where she educated her customers on proper diet and nutrition needs to stay healthy. After a few years, she took on her most challenging and rewarding teaching assignment in homes for the mentally challenged for 22 years. She retired at the age of 88. She believed that no child was unteachable. There were no bad students, only bad teachers. Her last few years were spent gardening, sewing, crafts, reading, writing her book on ultimate learning, repurposing materials (from trash to treasure) and spending time with her loved ones.
Welcoming her home with Jesus were her beloved family members who preceded her in death - her parents, her precious granddaughter, Amber Dawn Brown, sister, Eleanor Porter Hawthorne and her brothers, James Delbert "Jim" Porter and William Edwin "Eddie" Porter.
Survivors include her son, William Earl Reeder of Lawton, Oklahoma, her daughter, Janis Marie (Reeder) Brown, grandson, Ronald Brown and great-grandson, Zavier Brown, all of Godley, Texas, and special friends, Patra Priest, Jennifer, Kassidey and Brantley Burkhart and Xavior Gilliam, all of Lawton, Oklahoma.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Chisholm Trail Hospice of Duncan, 2000 W. Elk, Duncan, OK 73533 or by going to www.drhhealthfoundation.org.
An online guest book and sympathy cards are available at www.beckerfuneral.com.