AGE: 83
GILBERT, Jack K.
Paw Paw
Family will receive friends Saturday (May 25) 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Adams Funeral Home, Paw Paw where a memorial service will be held following visitation at 1 p.m. with Hospice Chaplain, Rev. Thede McBryde officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to Rose Arbor Hospice Residence or Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America.
Jack Keith Gilbert was born on Tuesday, February 18, 1930, at home. Alton L. and Pauline De Sutherland Gilbert were married in 1920. She was 18 and he was 16. They had seven surviving children, Alton L., Betty Jean, Jack, Ray Thomas, Clara Sue, Jerry Lee and Burton De. Jack was the third child of Pauline and Alton. Alton never stayed very long with the family. When he worked he did odd jobs, and often he was gone from their home life. Times were hard for Pauline and her seven children living in Benton Harbor. Pauline and her children had to move a lot. Eventually Pauline's family and her childhood best friend and her children rented a home together and the two women did the best they could to support the household. Jack lost his eyesight in one eye when he was eight when a playmate threw him a firecracker and it exploded near him. Jack's oldest brother was nine years older, his older sister was seven years older. Jack would often recall the tale of himself and his sister, Betty, tossing around a football and they broke a dish cabinet and all of the dishes in it. I am sure that his mom wasn't very happy that evening! Their neighbors donated their spare dishes to the family. Dad started working when he was about ten years old and kept on working in one way or another until last year. When he was 11 he started working at a grocery store for twenty cents an hour. When Jack turned 16 he started working at Popcorn Johns. He gave his mom the money he earned. There was little money for new shoes and he would have to put paper inside them to keep using them. Many nights by the time he got home from work, supper had already been served so he might have had to go without. His mom made biscuits that the kids were not too happy with and we were told that sometimes these biscuits would be hidden on the braces under the table, perhaps dad grabbed those to eat. Jack's brother, Jerry, followed in his footsteps and also worked at Popcorn Johns. During his last years of high school, Jack worked in co-op at Sears, and he would ride his bike out to local farms and do odd jobs whenever he could fmd them. They moved so many times that he had to repeat a year of school to keep up. When he was still in high school he started working the night shift at Whirlpool. He worked there for 40 years. In June of 1946 fate stepped in. Jack and Gretchen each received a gift, a week of camping at Pretty Lake Church camp. One of Gretchen's cabin mates introduced her to Jack. Her name is Sally. Their friendship grew even though Jack had to take the bus to Paw Paw to see her. They married in June of 1949 in Paw Paw. Their first years were spent in Benton Harbor. Kathy was born, Gretchen worked nights at the telephone company and Jack worked days at Whirlpool. Jack's sister, Clara would babysit when they needed a night out. In 1954 Jack and Gretchen bought property from Gretchen's uncle and moved to Paw Paw. There, they built their first home and took over the grape vineyard that was already planted. Sally was born in January 1955. In November 1956, Peggy, their third and last daughter was born. Jack continued to work at Whirlpool and was a fruit farmer and teacher of sorts for 25 years. He taught all of his girls something about caring for the fruit farm. Three learned how to drive a tractor, we all learned how to tie grapes, sucker them and pick them. We remember many Saturdays in the fall, listening to the University of Michigan football games, smelling the grapes and picking them and putting them into wooden beer crates. He tended to the grapes throughout their full cycle of growing, trimming and through the delivery of the grapes to the processing plants. He relied on his daughters to pick the cherries in the back field while he worked at the factory 45minutes away and Gretchen worked at the courthouse. Jack and his brother, Burt, laid carpet as a part time job for a few years. They may have gotten jobs from his brother, Ray, that owned a furniture store in Watervliet. Dad recalled that some nights on his way home from St Joe he would stop at a local tavern where he would meet his dad, uncle and brothers for a beer or just a little sibling time. In September of 1973, Burt, the youngest of the Gilbert boys was killed in a car accident. In 1974, their father passed away in Florida, he was married to his third wife at the time. Illness took his mother, then his siblings one by one. His sister, Clara is still with us. She lives in Minnesota with her husband. There were many years that Jack worked throughout the weekend tending to the grapes, cherries and raspberries. There was a very limited amount of time available for visiting family or taking vacations. But we got to go to Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore, out west to Montana, the upper penninsula, and Florida. Later during their retirement they went to Alaska, Germany to see family, and several trips to Las Vegas. When dad gave up some of his working hours he enjoyed fishing. For many years Jack and Gretchen went to Missouri with Dad's cousin, Dick and his wife, Pat. They would spend two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall in the Ozarks. Eventually, they enjoyed the company of more family members arriving from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. After the trips to Missouri ended Jack took his boat to Sal and Dan's and left it there for family to use when he wasn't there. Jack loved to bowl and for a short time he bowled Monday and Wednesday with the guys and later in the evening on a mixed league with Gretchen. Dad loved reading Westerns and mom hunted for any Louis Lamour book she could find for him. Dad probably read every book by that author. The last few years that he read, he finally used the local library and brought three or four books home at a time and read them. Even though dad gave up farming, he was still a farmer at heart and every year he and mom would have a nice sized garden and they enjoyed the fruits of their labor. All three of his girls have an interest in gardening and we plant our veggies and flowers every spring. Jack tended garden, he drove cars for Tappers, he worked with wood making cutouts and frames for the needlework projects that mom completed. For a few years Jack spent time working at Coast to Coast Hardware, Guy Jach's Hardware, and Ace Hardware. Dad enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine and enjoyed just watching the cars go by, or visiting with family, friends and their neighbors Winters were long and boring for the folks, but once dad expressed an interest in jigsaw puzzles we all became shoppers for unique puzzles for him to tackle. For Christmas he might get ten puzzles and make a comment about 'more puzzles?', but after the Christmas decorations were put away out would come the card table and tv trays. He sorted the pieces carefully and worked steadfast at completing a puzzle by himself or with the help of someone passing through the livingroom and putting in a piece or two. In 1972, they bought property across the street from their first house and built their second home. All of the lumber that was needed to frame the house came precut and ready to assemble. Some of the work was done by professionals, but a vast majority of the work was done by Jack and Gretchen and their friends that came out to help. The house became known as the house that Jack built. There is a simple piece of wood in the basement that has the names of everyone that helped them work on their house. I remember them staining baseboards in the yard of their old house and carrying them across the street to their new house. He loved his house and took great pride in the work that they did to complete their home. Jack loved his immediate family and the large extended family. In 1973 they began hosting the annual Sutherland family reunion and they continued to do so for the next 40 years. Jack and Gretchen would have been married 64 years this coming June. It was with great sadness that we had to insist that they leave their home for the safety of assisted living last fall. Jack's entire family has many good memories of the times we have spent together be it in their yard, in their home during the holidays or just small family get togethers, or out in the boat on the lake in Indiana feeding the fish while dad said there's no fish in this lake! But it didn't matter, we were together!
Survivors include his wife, Gretchen; his daughters, Kathy Warren, Sally (Dan) Jacquay and Peggy (Ken) Brately; grandchildren, Ilyne, Keith, Dave, Jill, Anne, Kenneth and Michael; 4 great grandchildren, Brooklin, Kaylee, Jazelle and Jack. Jack was preceded in death by his brothers, Alton, Ray, Jerry and Burton and one sister, Betty. His younger sister, Clara, lives in Minnesota.