“Libby” Gibson passed away peacefully, on April 17, 2024, at her home in North Bay with her 5 children by her side; Dean, Cindy, Geordie, Doug, and Robert.
Born in Toronto, Ontario in Feb-1937 as Emily Elizabeth Brown, she spent the first 4 years of her life in various mining communities in northwestern Ontario before moving with her parents and younger brother to Nova Scotia in 1944. She lived in Shelburne, Walton, and North Sydney before settling in Halifax where she graduated in 1954 from Queen Elizabeth High School. Staying in Halifax she obtained her Bachelor of Nursing Science Degree from Dalhousie University, trained at the VG School of Nursing and started working at Victoria General Hospital.
In Sep-1959 she married William John “Bill” Gibson, and by 1966 Bill and Libby had 5 children. Their married life took them from Halifax-Arvida-California-Grimsby-North Bay-Sudbury with a final move back to North Bay in 1989 where they lived out their lives enjoying fun times and adventures with their many friends, neighbours and extended family.
Libby was always a bundle of positive energy in her roles as mother, wife, and community volunteer. She was usually the last one to bed every night and the first one up every morning – always putting others ahead of herself, and a role model on how to treat everyone you encountered in life with dignity and respect.
She had a fierce sense of family and relished keeping in touch with immediate and extended family members no matter where they lived in the world. If you wanted to know what someone in the family was doing – you just had to ask Libby! This same closeness extended to her circle of friends, her nursing classmates, and the many women with whom she gave so much of her time through her involvement with the IODE and volunteering at hospitals in Sudbury and North Bay.
Libby was predeceased by her husband of 63 years Bill Gibson and her only sibling Ted Brown (February, 2024). She is survived by her five children and their spouses, 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (with one on the way). She also welcomed step-grandchildren and step great-grandchildren into the family fold.
Libby definitely did her part in making the world a better place … and we know she will be waiting on the other side with open arms and her infectious smile.
There will be no service as per Libby’s request. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Dr. Herbert A. Bruce Chapter of the IODE in North Bay.