“Teachers who inspire realize there will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones. It all depends on how we use them”
–Author Unknown
Beverly Wartes Gibson taught her last lesson on Earth on May 28, 2015. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and sister to her family; and a mentor, educator, confidant, inspirer, motivator and teacher to the hundreds of students who passed through the halls of Meadow Independent School District.
Beverly Wartes was born on April 28, 1936, in Wellman, Texas the fourth child of T.A. Wartes and Merle Singleton Wartes. The family moved to Brownfield where T.A. would become the Vice President of Goodpastures Grain. She would graduate from Brownfield High School before attending Texas Women’s University in Denton. After two years at TWU, she moved back to Lubbock and finished her education as a proud Red Raider graduate of Texas Tech University.
On June 28, 1958 she would marry Robert A. Gibson, a local boy from Meadow and they would go on to celebrate 57 years together. He was a cotton farmer and she would begin her teaching career in the Meadow schools. But before she began her 32 years of teaching service, she gave birth to twin girls, Ruth and Rebecca. She would watch the girls grow and follow in her footsteps to become graduates of Texas Tech. Like her mother, Ruth became a teacher and gave birth to two wonderful grandchildren before her untimely passing in 1999. Rebecca would move to Austin to work in state government and gave birth to three more grandchildren.
Besides family, Beverly’s passion was teaching. “Mrs. G,” as she was known by many, would teach generations of area families. Evolving with the changing technology, she taught accounting, shorthand, typing to keyboard and finally computer. But many will remember her as the sponsor for leading the UIL teams in typing and spelling that qualified for state many years under her guidance. Without any formal training or experience, she directed the last traditional senior and junior 3-act plays before school policy changed to only UIL one-act performances. She spent many an hour working the concession stands at sporting events, turkey shoots, cleaning Texas highways and would be the chaperone for many end-of-year senior trips.
She is preceded in death by her parents, two brothers T.A. Wartes, Jr. and Bill Wartes and her daughter Ruth Gibson Drake. She is survived by her husband Robert A. Gibson of Buda, sister Bennie Bullock of Garland, daughter Rebecca Gibson Hatch and her husband John of Buda, grandchildren John Robert, Gibson and Hannah Hatch of Buda, and grandchildren Stephanie Fleming and Phillip Drake of Ropesville.
She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Meadow.
