Reba Evelyn (Byrd) Kimbro

Reba Byrd Kimbro passed away on January 25, 2026, at the age of 95. Reba was born on February 5, 1930 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. The second child born to William Thomas Byrd and his wife, Allene Savely Byrd. She had an older sister, Ruth Byrd Cotten (deceased), a younger brother Clarence Richard Byrd (deceased), and a younger sister Barbara Byrd England. She grew up in North Nashville and attended Fehr elementary school, North junior high school, then graduated from Hume-Fogg Technical and Vocational High School majoring in secretarial. Her first job was at F. W. Woolworth when she was 16 years old. At 17 she was hired at the Carnegie downtown library as a typist. Little did she know she would continue to work at the library for 45 1/2 years, retiring in 1992 as a senior librarian.

She met her future husband Leland Kimbro (an art student) at Hume-Fogg. They were married in July 1950. Leland had been in the naval reserve for several years and in 1952 his unit was activated for duty during the Korean War. He was stationed aboard the USS Uhlmann DD687 destroyer docked in San Diego, CA. She drove from Nashville to San Diego to be with him before he was sent to Korea.

When his enlistment was over Leland was employed with a home builder drawing house plans. He designed their first house, a duplix, which was built in Crieve-Hall. Their son Billy was born in July 1958. Five years later they moved to a larger house in the Norman Binkley School area.

Their son Billy, was involved in the Brentwood Pony Club, the Crieve-Hall baseball league, the Junior Pro football league, and was the catcher for John Overton High School. They bought several acres on Old Hickory Boulevard (later became Montgomery Place) where they kept the 18 Welsh ponies they owned. In 1964 they purchased 7½ acres on Edmondson Pike and the three of them later built the house Leland had designed. They still live in this same house.

After Billy's graduation from Overton High School, he started to Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, and graduated as an Industrial Engineer. It was there that he met his future bride, Janet Powelson, who also was an engineer. They both started working at Textron in Nashville. After graduating from Tech in the summer of 1985, they were married November 1985 at First Christian Church, officiated by Dr. David Wead. They now live in Greensburg, PA where Billy is employed at Kennametal. They have a son, now 27 years old, Christopher Ryan Kimbro. When Christopher was three months old Reba and Leland kept him during the day while his mother worked. They continued to babysit him until they moved to Mattawan, MI five years later.

Reba retired from the Nashville Public Library September 1, 1992. Leland retired from Consoer Townsend October 1996. They were members at First Christian Church for over 30 years. They both left First Christian Church December 2004, the day the congregation voted to sell the church to Franklin Road Academy. They wasted no time in finding another church home, which turned out to be Woodson Chapel Church of Christ. They placed their membership on April 10, 2005. They were very happy to have found a church in their own neighborhood, one mile from their home.

A gathering of family and friends will be held on Thursday, January 29, 2026, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am at Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home, 660 Thompson Lane., Nashville, TN 37204. A celebration of life service will follow at the same venue.