Kimble County, TX - Obituaries:  Gardner, Joe M., Jr., 1947
Wednesday, August 2, 2000

Submitted by:  burtwyat@ctesc.net  (Frederica Wyatt)
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    Found in the scrapbook belonging to the late Margaret Griffen Harrison, Junction, Texas
                                  (Name of paper not given)

                     Joe M. Gardner, Jr. Funeral Rites Held Here Friday

  Funeral services for Joe M. Gardner, Jr., 19, who died Thursday at 12:55 p.m. in a
San Antonio hospital from injuries sustained in a car accident on October 31, were
held Friday at 4 p.m. from the College Street Church of Christ, with the Rev. John
Pickering, Alpine Christian minister, officiating.  The Hodges Funeral Home had
charge of the arrangements.  Burial was made in a private cemetery on the Gardner Ranch.
  Gardner, known intimately as "Joe Boy", had been taken to San Antonio by plane on
October 2.  The accident in which he was injured occurred when his car went over a high
embankment near Alpine as he and a friend were returning to Sul Ross after a visit with
his parents.  The friend, also a Sul Ross student, is recovering satisfactorily. Jimmy
Carroll Cherry was among the first to reach the scene.  It was reported, Joe Boy's
watch had stopped at 9:20 o'clock.
  In his billfold was a picture of his sweetheart who had died in a traffic accident near
Alpine last November 30.  The young lady, Bobby Jim Sparks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Cecil Sparks of Kermit, was a freshman at Sul Ross at that time.
  Joe Boy was a senior in Sul Ross majoring in agriculture.  He was serving as president
of "Clip and Brand", the "aggie" club, and vice-president of the Student Council.  Last
year he was voted Junior Class favorite and most popular boy in Sul Ross.
  He graduated from Schreiner Institute in 1946 as an outstanding cadet officer and 
highest ranking memeber of the senior class, having an A average on final examinations.
He also won a medal for outstanding participation in athletics and was awarded the
American Legion Medal from Post No. 13.
  He was a member of the First Christian Church of Alpine, having been baptized by the 
Rev. Pickering.
  Survivors include the parents; Mr. and Mrs. Joe M. Gardner; two sisters--Shannon and 
Zane, and brother, Jack.
  Pall bearers were Raymond Walston, John Arledge, Jack Ward, David Duke, Glenn Beard,
Bobby Braswell, Buzz Nichols, and Tucker Wyche, all Sul Ross students.  The flower girls
were Mrs. Preston Wright, and Misses Lovella Sparks, Dorothy Jean Crawford, Jean Burling,
Billie Louise Bierschwale, and Margaret Mae Mansfeld.
  Among the host of out-of-town friends attending the services were delegations from
Sul Ross and Schreiner Institute.
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