Montie Beth (Phillips) Gibbs

Longtime Duncan resident Montie Beth Gibbs died July 5, 2018, at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. She was 82.
Funeral services will be Monday, July 9, at 1:30 P.M. at Whitt Funeral Home with Rev. Randy Southerland, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church West, officiating. Burial will follow in the Duncan Municipal Cemetery. Montie’s seven grandsons will serve as pallbearers. Arrangements have been entrusted to Whitt Funeral Home.
Family and friends will gather at the Holiday Inn Express afterward to celebrate Montie.
Montie – who went by “Mother” to her seven children and “Mema” to her 38 grandchildren and great-grandchildren – was born on June 27, 1936, in Vernon, Texas, to Idress and Florene (Boyd) Phillips. She attended high school at Wilson High School in Tillman County, Oklahoma and was graduated from Stillwater (Oklahoma) High School in 1954.
She married Max Allen Gibbs on February 28, 1953, in Frederick. After Max finished college, the family moved to Monahans, Texas, where Max worked as an engineer for Halliburton Services. In 1970, they and their seven children made Duncan their home. Montie and Max were approaching their 42nd anniversary when he died in late 1994.
Montie loved the outdoors, especially road trips and camping with her family. A standout basketball player in high school, she was a lifelong fan of the game and seldom missed watching the OKC Thunder play on television. She had a boundless knowledge of plants, gardening, and anything else which grows from the earth. And, she loved each of her many dogs over the years, especially her beloved Chihuahuas, Tina 1 and Tina 2.
A devoted mother to her children, Montie took special joy in being around and caring for her grandchildren – as well as her great- and great-great grandchildren. Anyone visiting Montie in her home was almost sure to find her accompanied by at least one little one, maybe more. If she wasn’t cooking something for them, she was teaching a craft, enlisting their help with a project, or maybe just sharing her love for Westerns with an all-day screening of “Lonesome Dove.”
Montie is survived by her children and their spouses, Kenneth and Terry Gibbs of Keller, Texas, Kim and Duke Goddard of Duncan, Kay and Harold Tipton of Duncan, Kevin Gibbs and John Simon of Dallas, Texas, Kyle and Terri Gibbs of Stillwater, Kirk and Sheri Gibbs of Duncan, and Kandyce and Lee Weaver of Austin, Texas. She is also survived by 19 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and 1 great-great grandchild. She is also survived by two brothers, Damon Phillips and his wife Betty of Duncan, and Rex Phillips and his wife Kathy of Fort Worth, Texas.
Montie was preceded in death by her husband, Max; parents, Idress and Florene Phillips; sister, Brenda Phillips; brother, Kenneth Phillips; and granddaughter, Nicole Speer.
Memorial contributions can be made in Montie’s name to the Stephens County Humane Society.
Online condolences may be made to the family at www.whittfh.com.

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