DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997                TAG: 9703100007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   34 lines

W. HARVEY GILBERT SR.

William Harvey Gilbert Sr., 74, of the 5700 block of Blackwater Road died Saturday, March 8, 1997.

Mr. Gilbert was born in the Blackwater section of Virginia Beach and was the son of the late W. Arthur and Mary Frost Gilbert. He was a retired farmer and past president of the Virginia Beach Farm Bureau. He was a former director and was recently named an honorary board member of the farm bureau. He served on the Agriculture Stabilization Committee of Virginia Beach for the Department of Agriculture Conservation Service, where he served as chairman of the Blackwater district during 1963 and 1966. He was also a former board member of Southern States Petroleum.

Memberships included Blackwater Baptist Church, where he served as an usher and chairman of the church cemetery committee and the Creeds Ruritan Club, where he also served on numerous committees.

Survivors include his wife of 45 years, Mary Alice Davis Gilbert; two daughters, Darlene Gilbert and Connie Elaine Bigelow and her husband, Montie; his son, W.H. ``Buddy'' Gilbert Jr. and his wife, Nina, and three grandchildren, Kristy and Stacey Bigelow and Lance Gilbert, all of Virginia Beach; as well as his many loving cousins.

The funeral will be conducted at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Blackwater Baptist Church by Dr. Willie E. Davis of Winston-Salem, N.C., and the Rev. Michael Jones of Blackwater Baptist Church. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

The family will receive friends in Oman Funeral Home, Great Bridge, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Cemetery Fund of Blackwater Baptist Church, 6000 Blackwater Road, Virginia Beach, Va. 23457. KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

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