Alberta N Gillespie

Alberta Naunas Gillespie was born five years before the stock market crash of 1929. She had a childhood throughout the Great Depression. Her family had concerns with feeding homeless and the jobless who arrived at her back door desperate for food. She attended Bloomsburg Teacher's College, now Bloomsburg University, where she co-majored in Science and English. This was during World War Two. Before television, she was hired to host a radio program featuring Home Economics. She met her husband on return from his naval war duty in the South Pacific. He enrolled at Bloomsburg Teacher's College majoring in Engineering. She personally supported her husband's employment goal of landing a man on the moon and safely returning him to Earth. Her marriage loyalty exceeded over fifty years of happiness. Her success paralleled her husband's as when she began as a Brevard County Health Educator. She freed countless people from addiction to tobacco with her efforts. Her background of Science and Education gave her the confidence to battle Venereal Diseases when HIV-AIDS was epidemic and fatal. As incurable, she saved thousands of lives through prevention programs and speeches. She was the mother of three boys that she raised to be gentlemen. She finally received a daughter when her first son, Bill, married Karen. She became the grandmother of two outstanding children: Tyler and Marissa who will carry her legacy of Love and Service to Mankind. "Bertie" her nickname, had an extraordinary sense of humor necessary for raising three sons. When she was in her Ninety’s, she would joke about her son filing her tax returns for her. She claimed Leavenworth would be beautiful in the springtime. So much of her career was spent fighting drug addiction in others. Her heart was filled with love for those around her and her consideration for their feelings. She taught by more than example. She was a “kool Aid Mother” for more than her immediate family. With the unexpected early death of her third son she created the Paul Gillespie Memorial Scholarship at East Central Florida College. She made lemonade from life’s lemons then added gin. Her many adventures in life included converations with Bill Shatner and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. among actors and countless politicians, her favorite was Vice President Hubert Humphry. Her grand-daughter gave her two great-grand-daughters: Cassidy and Charlotte. They will carry Bertie's legacy of unconditional love into another century.

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