Phyllis Christie Gardner

LEXINGTON – A visitation for Phyllis Christie Gardner, 76, will be held from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 29, 2016 at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, Lexington Chapel. Private services will be held at a later date. Mrs. Gardner was born December 29, 1939 in Winnsboro, SC and passed away on Friday, December 23, 2016. She was the daughter of the late Lewis L. and Pauline B. Christie. Mrs. Gardner graduated from the University of SC in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration. She began her career in 1957 at the SC Employment Security Commission and, in 1976, she began working at the SC Retirement System. In 1979 she created the Preretirement Education Program, which was the first of its kind in the public sector. In 1980 she founded the National Preretirement Education Association and, in 1990, received the NPEA’s award for the program she developed to educate illiterate and hearing impaired members. She retired as the Assistant Director with the SC Retirement System in 1994. She was also in Who’s Who of American Women 1984-1985. She was the creator and editor of NPEA newsletter “Options” and “Systems Update” that began in 1981. These programs that she created are used as a national model and have made SC a leader in the U.S. on public sector preretirement education. Mrs. Gardner is survived by her son, Max Gardner, Jr. of Gilbert; daughter, Paula Rogers (Tim) of Gilbert; grandchildren, Chasitie, Donovan, McClary, Del (Kerri), Amanda, Maggie and Cheyenne; great-grandchildren, Delanie, Tiffany, Whitney, Bently, Preston, Shelby, Jabie and Vanessa; sister, Mittie Christie; niece, Angie Christie; nephew, Carl (Suzanne, Breanna) Christie; great-great grandnephew, Easton. She is preceded in death by both parents; husband, Max D. “Buddy” Gardner, Sr. and brother, Lewis L. “Chris” Christie. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, 128 Stonemark Ln., Columbia, SC 29210; American Kidney Foundation, 11921 Rockville Pike, Ste. 300, Rockville, MD 20852; American Heart Association, 190 Knox Abbott Dr., Ste. 301, Cayce, SC 29033; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38101 or the ASPCA, 424 E. 92nd St., New York, NY 10128.