Emma Jean Gamble

Emma Jean Petross Gamble passed away on June 23, 2021.  She goes by Emma, Jean, Mom and Grandma.  She was born November 11, 1925, on their farm four miles from Blanket, TX, in Brown County, to Carl Petross and May Stewart Petross. Emma grew up on the farm where she remembered her childhood being carefree and happy. One of her favorite things to do was play outside in the dirt with little cars and trucks. Growing up she helped on the farm by gathering eggs and picking cotton.  She had a pet Plymouth Rock rooster named Alexander. The farm became a place for family gatherings that her children, nieces and nephews, became familiar with and have such fond memories of.

Emma went to school in Blanket, TX, where she met her future husband, Robert (Bob) Gamble, in the 4th grade. He was a “city boy” who moved from Brownwood to a farm near Blanket.  He wore corduroy pants, while all the other boys wore jeans or overalls.  She was smitten from then on.  They spent quite some time apart after their days of going to school together. Bob enlisted in the Army during WWII, in early 1943, at the age 17, so off he went during their senior year.  At that time there were only 11 grades.  After high school, Emma worked for the Brown County Agricultural Agent for a while.  She then took a Civil Service exam and was a Clerk-Typist at Camp Bowie, site of a German POW camp.  This proved to be an introduction to what would become three decades of Army life.  She and Bob wrote letters and saw each other some over the years when he was home on leave.  After her job at Camp Bowie was terminated, Emma went to Abilene Christian College for two years and then transferred to Texas Tech.  One weekend when she was back home for a visit, Bob was back from Korea on leave and came to see her.  They started seeing each other every chance they got.  On his birthday, December 1, 1948, Bob proposed to Emma.  After 60 days of leave, Bob reported to duty at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.  He transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington, in March 1949.  While he was on leave in July, Emma’s sister Bonita and her husband, Ed, drove her to Oregon, where Ed had family.  Bob met her there, they drove back to Fort Lewis and were married on July 11, 1949, in Tacoma, Washington. They honeymooned in Seattle, San Francisco, Reno, Monterrey, and Carmel.

Emma was now a military wife. Bob was sent to Japan as part of the occupying force and she went by ship to join him there in late May 1950, where they stayed for two years.  Upon their return they were stationed at Camp Polk, Louisiana, where her oldest son, Allan, was born on April 3, 1953.  Then to Fort Hood in Killeen, TX.  In 1954, Bob received orders for France, where Emma joined him a little later.  Dale was born in La Rochelle, France, on June 15, 1955.  In 1957 the family returned to Fort Hood where Gary was born on October 20, 1957.  In the summer of 1959, they got orders for Germany where they lived until 1962.  Bob was then stationed to Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, where they bought a house at 9900 Singapore Drive.  This would be their home for many years to come.  Kelly was born on April 22, 1965, at Fort Bliss, when Bob was in Africa as a Green Beret.  The family moved to Germany from 1967-1970, then returned to their home in El Paso, while Bob spent a year in Vietnam with the Corps of Engineers.  Upon his return, the family moved to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where Bob retired from the Army on December 31, 1971.  The family returned to El Paso until 1975 when they moved to San Angelo, Texas, to be nearer Bob and Emma’s families.  In 1979 they moved to Abilene where Bob would pass away on December 26, 1988.  In 2001, Emma would move to Georgetown, Texas, where she lived out her life. 

Emma is preceded in death by her parents, Carl and May Petross; her husband, Robert Gamble; her sister, Bonita Howe; her two nephews, Jimmy and Bobby Howe; and all of her beloved pets.  She is survived by her children, Allan and his wife, Susan; Dale; Gary and his wife, Hilary; Kelly and her husband Steve; and her grandchildren Kirby and Kristopher.

A Graveside service will be held on Friday July, 9, 2021 at 2pm in El Paso, Texas at Ft. Bliss National Cemetery, where Emma Jean Petross Gamble will be laid to rest next to her beloved husband Robert Addison Gamble.

In lieu of flowers please make a donation to your favorite charity.