Ralph 'Gene' Eugene Gibbens
Ralph 'Gene' Eugene Gibbens, 62, 814 S. Walnut, a retired rural mail carrier and owner of Gene's Foreign Car Service, died Tuesday (June 12, 1990) at Newton Medical Center.
Service will be 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, with the Rev. Dan Waters officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery.
He was born July 16, 1927, in Newton, the son of Philip W. Gibbens Sr. and Pearl (Leach) [Leech] Gibbens. On March 10, 1948, he married Wilma Arlene Toms in Kansas City, Mo. She survives.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church and the Rural Mail Carrier Association, and had lived in this area all his life.
He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and had held several jobs, including fireman on the Middle Division of the Santa Fe Railway, a machinist with Cessna and Beech Aircraft, an insurance underwriter with Penn Mutual and in the Jobbing House with Royston Motors.
He was president of the former Gibbens Auto Supply Inc. of Walton.
Survivors other than his wife include two sons, Ernest L. and Lewis E., both of Newton; two daughters, Janis N. Bernd of Windom and Rhonda J. Hudson of Newton; four brothers, Bill and David, both of Newton, Philip Jr. of Lenexa, and James of Wichita; two sisters, Ruth Huebert of Derby and Naomi Drake of Newton; and nine grandchildren. Two sons, Johnnie Ralph and Farley Andrew, preceded him in death.
Friends may call from 5 to 9 p.m. today, all day Friday and until noon Saturday at Peterson's Funeral Home. Memorials are suggested to First United Methodist Church.
The Newton Kansan, Thursday, June 14, 1990 p. 5
1927 - 1990 (62 years)