Allison Kimble Floyd

Allison was born August 31, 1969, in Harriman, TN, to Gayle Giles Kimble and Thomas Garry Kimble, Sr. Raised in LaFayette, GA, Allison graduated from Gordon Lee Memorial High School before heading to the University of Georgia. She earned a bachelor of science and a master of education in Athens. Most important, Allison met her soulmate, Preston Scott Floyd, who would become her best friend and the love of her life. They married just blocks from campus in 1994, on a July day so lovely and unseasonably cool that Allison’s aunt said, “This marriage is obviously meant to be.” After their wedding, Allison and Scott settled in Lexington.

Allison began her thirty-year career as a speech-language pathologist in public schools, loving her work with kids in Walker County, GA, and at Lexington Elementary School. In 2001, she found a new professional passion at the Columbia VA Health Care System, where she served United States veterans and started a unique Memory Club for patients with cognitive deficits.

Allison was blessed to be the mother of Preston, Claire, and Spencer. For many years, she could be found cheering them on at soccer fields and tennis courts across the Southeast. She wouldn’t hesitate to pick them up from school and drive seven hours nonstop to Disney World, and she delighted in every moment she had with them. She also loved being “mom” to the Floyds’ sweet golden retrievers—Flipper, Cheerio, and Corley.

She’d use any excuse to head to the beach, which was her happy place…though the lake would do in a pinch. She never lost her affection for Athens and was proud to be a DGD (Damn Good Dawg), one of “those” Georgia fans always shaking her red pom-pom. Though living in South Carolina, she continued cheering on the Dawgs with “her people,” her fellow UGA fans. She didn’t love to cook but she loved to eat, and was an original Frequent Eaters Club member at the Flight Deck Restaurant—known within the family as “the Floyd Deck.”

Allison was a lifelong member of the Old Maid Brigade with her dear childhood friends Amy, Lori, and Patti. She also cherished the large friend group she built in Lexington; “the more the merrier!” she always said. Those friends’ names may not be written here but they are written on the hearts of her family, who are grateful for the unwavering love and support shown to Allison, Scott, and their children over the past three years.

A woman of deep Christian faith, Allison joined Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church in 1995, where she was an active member of the Foundations Sunday school class, a volunteer at Vacation Bible School and Drive Thru Prayer, and a regular at Friday-morning Bible study at Panera. Allison was preceded in death by her father, Garry, and her brother Tommy Kimble. She is survived by her husband, Scott, and their children Preston, Claire, and Spencer; her mother, Gayle, and her brother Vince Kimble. Other survivors include Ned, Patti, Mary Frances, and Katherine Giles; Edna Kimble, Beverly Smith, and Christy King; and her nieces and nephews.

The Floyd family would like to extend special thanks to their Saxe Gotha church family, the physicians and staff of South Carolina Oncology Associates, and the Three Oaks Hospice staff for their loving care and support.

A service and reception will be held at Saxe Gotha in Lexington on Saturday, July 12, at 11:00 AM followed by a private graveside service in North Carolina at a later date. Reverend Joel Brantner will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Allison’s memory to Shriners Children’s in Greenville, SC, or Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church in Lexington, SC.