{"id":14760,"date":"2026-05-13T16:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/?p=14760"},"modified":"2026-05-13T16:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:21:25","slug":"gilmer-gayle-duncan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/gilmer-gayle-duncan\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilmer, Gayle Duncan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Gayle Duncan Gilmer, age 82, of Franklin, Tennessee, passed away on March 18, 2026, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, surrounded by loving family members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Born Martha Gayle Duncan on July 6, 1943, in Lobelville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of the late Homer and Mabel (Long) Duncan. In 1961, Gayle graduated valedictorian at Lobelville High School. On April 3, 1964, Gayle married J. Wayne Gilmer, and they celebrated 52 years of marriage. In addition to her parents and husband, Gayle was preceded in death by her brother, Van Duncan, and grandparents, William T. and Mary Lora (Brown) Duncan, and Henry Hugh and Hattie (Coble) Long, Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Gayle is survived by her son Scott (Amber) Gilmer; daughter Shelby (Michael) Elswick, M.D.; grandchildren Adaline Gilmer, Hope (Connor) Manuel, Hunter (Emily) Olds, Sydney Olds, Skylar Olds, Lawson Olds, Brady Elswick, Brooks Elswick, Noah Elswick, and Amber (Travis) Dales; great-grandchildren Sage Manuel and Bentley Dales, and numerous other family members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">A lifelong learner, Gayle emphasized the importance of education to her family and others. After her children were grown, she returned to her studies, earning bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from the University of Tennessee at Martin, and furthered her graduate education at Vanderbilt University. She channeled this passion into a meaningful career as a special education teacher at Perry County High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">An active member of the church of Christ, Gayle also served her community by volunteering on the hospital and library boards and knitting for others.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">A Graveside Service before burial will be held Monday, March 23, 2026, at 12:00 PM at the Gilmer Cemetery, Lobelville, TN, with Brother Bill McDonald officiating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Lobelville Public Library (55 S. Main St., Lobelville, TN 37097), the Gilmer Cemetery fund (\u2105 Bank of Perry County, 33 S. Main St., Lobelville, TN 37097), or the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The family extends a special thank you to Sanjay Mohan, M.D., and the staff of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Vanderbilt University Medical Center for their excellent care. In addition, the family greatly appreciates the companionship of friends and neighbors she enjoyed at Everleigh.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gayle Duncan Gilmer, age 82, of Franklin, Tennessee, passed away on March 18, 2026, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, surrounded by loving family members. Born Martha Gayle Duncan on July 6, 1943, in Lobelville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of the late Homer and Mabel (Long) Duncan. In 1961, Gayle graduated valedictorian at Lobelville High School. On&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/gilmer-gayle-duncan\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[30,448,7464,38,7462,449,1088,7463,2060],"class_list":["post-14760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mcdonaldfuneralhome","tag-brown","tag-coble","tag-dales","tag-duncan","tag-elswick","tag-gilmer","tag-long","tag-manuel","tag-olds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/lewis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}