Dorothy Irene Gibson McCarthy

(1945-2015)

Dorothy was born August 4th 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Charles F. Gibson & Laura I. (Snyder) Gibson. She was a proud mother of four children, six grand children, and two great grandchildren with one on the way. She arrived Home into The Father’s loving arms on Wednesday July 8th 2015 from Memorial Hospital of Tampa.

She was the fourth child of five, and the third daughter of loving parents with mischievous siblings. She was the quintessential daddy’s little girl, just ask her brothers. Received her own car for sweet sixteen, worked a part-time job to pay for gas and a mechanical younger brother to do maintenance & fix any damage she didn’t do.

She lived life to the fullest no matter the situation. Being in the marching band in high school, playing the clarinet, she met a boy that caught her eye. Said boy joined the US Army; so she married a military man, traveled the world, most of the time with two or more children in tow. She threw herself into life, working part time jobs to keep from being bored and provide little extra’s to enhance the family life; diving into Girl Scouts for each of her three daughters, and Cub Scouts for her son. She never graduated to Boy Scouts like Shawn; “the younger ones listened so much better”. She became “mom” to those who needed her and “sister” to almost everyone else. She gave birth to four children but raised dozens more.

She could and would tell stories of her “adventures”; stories about how she found herself in a situation, and turned it to her advantage almost every time. About buying Big Mac’s in Germany, transporting them to Italy, charging unheard of sums for a bite, or the time she was a bar tender for the Rod-n-Gun Club, off duty at the time of a party, opened the second bar ‘because officers had no patience’, she ended up with a tip over $300.00 doing nothing after opening the register; the officers manned the register and because they ‘don’t do change’; riding motorcycles around the German country side at 8 months pregnant, because “her husband had the car.”; or camping in fog so thick you can’t see your hand in front of your face; or a situation when one (or more) of her children needed medical attention because “ we do so pay attention.” Even though she never could handle the sight of blood, when it came to any of her children needing medical attention like: stitches, lots and lots of stitches, broken bones, dog bites, scratched eyes, cold & flu, skin rashes, car crashes, and most of all broken hearts, she was the quintessential mother, sitting there holding their hand and sometimes yelling at them “because she had to see the blood” all while whole heartily loving them. Relaying stories to brag on her children, their accomplishments, miles stones in friends & family’s lives whatever could help the listener or just an anecdote to be shared.

After twenty years of married life, she found herself starting over as a single parent of four. As per her personality, diving in, earning her Associates degree in Accounting at Pike’s Peak Community College in Colorado, while continuing to raise her four trouble magnet children and all of their friends. She continued to be involved in church and many other volunteer based organizations, used her skills to help others where and when it was needed. She was continually giving of herself, most of the time without anyone noticing, living her faith and trusting God to figure out the details that she missed.

Surviving cancer in her 50’s she continued giving her life to faith and trusting God to figure out the details that she missed. She was never one to sit idle, always volunteering at church, helping any way she can whether it be in the sound control booth or helping with budgets that would improve financial stability. A Pack Master for Cub Scout Pack 25 for over twenty years. She was always volunteering as a Class Grandmother for multiple classes at Holy Trinity Lutheran School, along with filling any other roles that were empty. She will surely be missed by the many whose lives she has touched.

Her best feature was living God’s word and putting smiles on the children whose lives she touched with a warm heart and loving hands.

Dorothy is survived by her four children, Darlene Waid, Colleen Everhart, Johniece Lippincott, and Shawn McCarthy; her six grand-children Anthony McCarthy, Isabel McNemar, Joshua Werner, Zechariah Werner, Xavier Waid, and Noah McCarthy; and her two great-grand-children Sean McNemar and Samuel McNemar, and one on the way; and one sister Florence Gibson, and two brothers Harry Gibson and Edward Gibson.

Memorial services will be held, Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 10:30 A.M., at Bayshore Presbyterian Church on Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, Florida. It is for all to come and celebrate the wonderful life God gave her to share with us and used to benefit the rest of us mere peasants. Flowers are acceptable as they won’t make her sneeze anymore, but prefer monies donated to charities benefiting children.