Obituary of Gifford Sutton Garner

Mr. Gifford Sutton Garner, age 85, of Ozark, died Thursday evening, March 27, 2014, in Flowers Hospital. Funeral services will be 11:00 A. M. Monday, March 31, 2014, from the First United Methodist Church of Ozark with Reverend Dr. Christian Eckert, Reverend Dr. Billy D. Gaither, and Reverend John D. Reese, III officiating. Interment will follow in Ozark City Cemetery, Holman Funeral Home of Ozark directing. The family will receive friends at the funeral home Sunday from 3:00 P. M. until 5:00 P. M. Mr. Garner was born March 8, 1929 in Ozark, Alabama to the late William Sutton Garner and Birdie Gifford Hill Garner. He attended local schools, graduating in 1946 from then Dale County High School. He attended Marion Military Institute and Auburn University graduating in December 1952. He served two years in the United States Army, eighteen on those months in Korea where he was cited for special service to the Korean Government. Returning to Ozark in 1954, he entered the retail furniture business for sixteen years, he then was a wholesale furniture representative for southeast Alabama, south Georgia, and northwest Florida for twenty-seven years, retiring in 1994. Mr. Garner was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Ozark where he served as a member and past Chairman of the Administrative Board, Pastor Staff Committee, Finance Committee, Worship Committee, Family Life Center Executive Committee, Wonderful Wednesdays Committee, Lay Leader, Chairman of the Finance Committee, member of the John Wesley Fellowship Class, and taught the Senior High Sunday School Class for twenty years. He served throughout the years in many community and civic areas. Mr. Garner served on the R.S.V.P. Advisory Board, the U. M. C. H. Settlement Advisory Board, member of the Dale County Forestry Association, Dale County History Heritage Book Committee, member of the Claybank Master Gardeners, and the Liaison Officer of the Wiregrass American Red Cross to the Dale County Emergency Management Agency. In prior years he served as President of the Ozark Rotary Club, Scout Master and Organizer of Troop 20 of the Boy Scouts of America, Vice-President of the Ozark-Dale County Chamber of Commerce, and in 1964 was selected by the Ozark Jaycees as the first Outstanding Young Man of the Year. He was a full-time “volunteer” and felt it a privilege to be able to serve his fellowman. Survivors include his wife, Ann Kolb Garner of Ozark; two daughters and sons-in-law, Susann and Doug Bates of Dothan, Dr. Dottie and Dr. John Gaylord of Roanoke, Virginia; three grand-daughters, Sarah Caroline Bates, Eliza Ann Gaylord, and Allison Leigh “Allie” Gaylord; one sister, Mary Alice Bush of Madison, Mississippi; one brother and sister-in-law, William Stanley and Mary Garner of Ozark. Several nieces and nephews also survive. Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made to the charity of your choice. Service Information