Geneva Lou (Gilbreath) Johnson, age 74, was given her angel wings on Thursday, November 19, 2020. Due to strict hospital rules, she was only able to have her 2 youngest children at her side as she ended her valiant fight with the side effects of having contracted Covid in June of this year.
Graveside Services for Geneva will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, December 5, 2020, at Greenleaf Cemetery. No set visitation. Arrangements are under the direction of Blaylock Funeral Home of Brownwood.
Born on July 1, 1946, she was the youngest of three children of Henry Barnett “Dock” Gilbreath and Louvenia “Pearl” (Lawler) Gilbreath in San Angelo, Texas. She attended Brownwood High School.
She fell in love with Jerry Eugene Ellison and they married January 18, 1963. She became a young widow with 3 small children on November 12, 1972. She later married Jimmy Merle Griffin on January 4, 1974; their marriage was all too brief as he to left her as a young widow on September 2, 1976. She married a third time to Leonard Jack Johnson I on July 4, 1981. After 13 years of marriage and raising 4 children between them, they parted ways on January 6, 1995.
Having worked hard most of her life, she started working for the Bangs ISD Tax Office in 1976 and when the tax office closed, she was transferred to the Brown County Appraisal District. She later worked for the Coleman County Appraisal District and the Comanche County Appraisal District. She ended her appraising career on December 21, 2012, when she retired from the Brown County Appraisal District.
She was a very creative person; her hobby was whatever the latest thing was, and they were numerous throughout her life. In her retirement years, she worked on genealogy and enjoyed her social times with her friends, former classmates, and distant cousins. She loved cooking and having her family together on holidays and birthdays. Family and friends were very important to her. Many of her children’s friends referred to her as “Mom” and she was “Granny” to the younger generation.
Left to cherish her memory are her daughters, Eva Bush and husband Mickie of Brownwood, Deborah Stuart and husband Keith of Mercury; her son, Jerry Ellison and wife Donna of Bangs; her granddaughter, Kaitlyn Burton and husband Marshal of Brownwood; great-grandson, Theodore Ellison of San Angelo; sister, Lily Bridges of Amarillo; life-long sister friend, Sandra Arnold of Brownwood; niece, Jackie Corbin; nephews, Larry, Lester and David Bridges and Richard Gilbreath; and her bonus grandsons, Tanner and Trevor Stuart, Nathaniel and Noah Jones, and Aiden Brown.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Dock and Pearl; husbands, Jerry Ellison and Jimmy Griffin; her grandson, Keith Bryan Ellison; a brother, Wilburn Richard “Bucky” Gilbreath; a niece, Brenda Bridges Usery; a nephew, Rodger Bridges; and her step-son, Leonard Jack Johnson II.
The family is requesting that in lieu of flowers to donate to the National Kidney Foundation (www.kidney.org/donation); American Lung Association (www.lung.org); or any favorite local charity. Online condolences for the family are welcome at www.blaylockfuneralhome.com.
