Gertrude 'Trudy' Kimbrel was the daughter of Millie Milbray Annice (Cook) Kimbrel and Jeremiah K. (Dink) Kimbrel.

Gertrude 'Trudy' Kimbrel had one sister and twelve brothers:

[1] Infant Son Kimbrel, 1874, 1874
[2] Leroy Kimbrel, 1879, 1952
[3] Infant son Kimbrel, 1879, 1879
[4] Infant son G.F. Kimbrel, 1882, 1882
[5] Luther Kimbrel, 1885, 1955
[6] Nancy Kimbrel, 1888, 1974
[7] John Kimbrel, 1891, 1957
[8] William Wright Kimbrel, 1893, 1976
[9] James Gary Kimbrel, 1894, 1947
[10] Julian Kimbrel, 1897, 1951
[11] Eager K. Kimbrel, 1900, 1961
[12] Charles W. Kimbrel, 1901, 1943
[13] Perry Kimbrel, 1904, 1974

Gertrude (Kimbrel) Chapman, Obituary:

Mrs. Trudie Chapman
Passes at Home March 6, 1977

Friends and relatives here were saddened Sunday, March 6, 1977, when they learned that Mrs. Gertrude Kimbrel, Chapman had passed a-way at her home on West Main Street following a lengthy illness. “Miss Trudie” as she was lovingly called by friends, was born, reared, and lived her entire life here in Miller County. She was a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Dink Kimbrel, pioneers and respected Miller Countians. She attended the schools of this county and married Arthur B. Chapman, who preceded her in death years ago. The couple had no children, but they took three of Mr. Chapman’s brother’s children, Alma, Rosella and Curtis Chapman, into their home and gave them love, security and training. “Miss Trudie” was kind, honest, thrifty, industrious, and her love reached out to those of her kin who were in trouble. Every niece and nephew knew that ‘Aunt Trudie” would aid, if she knew that he or she were in trouble. She worked diligently every day at her upholstery shop until her last illness, seven months ago, which kept her in bed until the end came. She loved to work and enjoyed giving her customers her best. She and her husband farmed in the Bell-view Community until his death and she continued her farming interests for years. She had a deep, abiding faith in Christ and was a member of Colquitt First Baptist Church. Funeral services were held Monday afternoon March 7, at the Cooks Union Methodist Church with Rev. David Ebersole and Rev. Richard Aultman officiating. Interment followed in the church cemetery with Colquitt Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Pall bearers were nephews, Fletcher Sheffield, Ronnie Sheffield, Emory Sheffield, Joe Chapman, Jerry Thornton and R.L. Grimes. A large number of nieces and nephews survive.

BIOGRAPHY

Gertrude (Kimbrel) Chapman and Arthur Chapman Biography

Gertrude Kimbrel was Millie Milbria Annice (Cook) Kimbrel, and Jeremiah K. (Dink) Kimbrel’s fifth child but second living child and first daughter. Gertrude Kimbrel was born in Miller County, Georgia on August 7, 1884. Chester Alan Arthur is our 21st. President. Gertrude always liked to be called Trudy and that was the name that everyone knew her by and what everyone called her. Arthur B. Chapman originally from Worth County, GA was born on December 13, 1883 and had eight brothers and sisters. Arthur worked for The Babcock Lumber Company riding a horse through the Georgia forest checking the number of live pine trees that provide resin that is used to produce turpentine. After the company made a deal with the tree owners Arthur Chapman would supervise the workers that cut slashes in the bark of the pine trees and fasten metal containers under the slashes to catch the resin sap from the pine tree. He rode the horse all day while checking the workers and keep them moving from tree to tree. When the lumber company’s resin collecting jobs ran out of business Arthur moved onto a farm in Miller County to start farming. By this time Arthur had met Gertrude Kimbrel and they had married on October 3, 1909 in Miller County, Georgia and Gertrude became Mrs. Gertrude (Kimbrel) Chapman or otherwise known as Mrs. Trudy Chapman. Arthur and Gertrude used a horse drawn buggy to ride around in the country and to go to town when they needed things. Early automobiles were appearing on the market and the Ford Motor Company brought out the Model T Ford in 1908, the year before Gertrude and Arthur were married. Soon after their marriage and early into Arthur farming years many of the people were beginning to own automobiles, those that could afford them owned more expensive automobiles, but the Ford Motor Company started producing the Model T car and truck on a massive scale as an inexpensive vehicle that most people could afford as a mode of transportation. In the year of 1927 alone, the Ford Motor Company produced 15 million Model T automobiles. Farm pickup trucks started appearing on the market, and many families owned Model T cars and most of Gertrude’s brothers owned farm trucks. However, Arthur was still using his horse and buggy to get around. Later Arthur purchased a larger farm and they lived in one of the nicest country homes in the area which was a large log house on Georgia highway 91. Arthur Chapman was a congenial, friendly man, easy going, laid back man who enjoyed his friends and neighbors. He was a deacon at the Colquitt Baptist Church and he and Trudy road to town in the buggy every Sunday. Gertrude and Arthur lived there until Arthur died on September 27, 1933 at which time Gertrude was left with the two young girls Arthur’s brother Willie Newton Chapman and wife Flora Asaline Chapman’s daughters Alma Clarice Chapman and Rosella Chapman to raise alone. Arthur still owed a lot of money on the farm that they were living on and times were really hard back then for a widow with no way to make a living for herself and her two nieces that she was raising. Gertrude still owned the farm land that she had inherited from her farther even though it had an indebtedness and she was about to lose it, she moved into the house on that land. Luther Kimbrel made arrangements to buy the foreclosed land that Gertrude moved off of. Gertrude’s brother John Kimbrel borrowed the money and bought the farm from her. Then using the extra money from selling the farm to her brother she was able to make a down payment and bought the 250 acres farm across the road from the farm that she sold to John Kimbrel. Then Jeremiah Dink Kimbrel’s brother James Monroe Kimbrel and his wife Laura Jane (Lowe) Kimbrel moved back from Texas and had Charles and Perry Kimbrel build a farmhouse on the other end of the 250 acres that Gertrude had purchased. There were several old houses on this farm that she bought that had tenant farmers living in them and having the tenant farmers to work for her Gertrude managed to work the farm out of debt. In 1940 before WWII started but sure that we would be involved the government started a program called Winning World War II on the Farm and that included several different types of programs and one of the programs was called, The Making Mattresses program which involved making and giving mattresses to rural families. Gertrude was hired by the government to run this program in Colquitt inside of a large house in Colquitt. This program was a combination surplus disposal and antipoverty or low-income program, (because most countries in Europe were involved in the war there were less customers for the cotton farm products, so the government found a way to create a need for the cotton). Farm families made application at their county AAA office. If accepted, the family was put on a waiting list and notified with a card when to come to the county mattress center. The material was free but the family receiving the matters had to come in and provide the labor to make the mattresses. Working together, under the direction of Gertrude a mattress was made that day for each family represented. Each mattress contained 50 pounds of cotton and 10 yards of 32-inch ticking. Gertrude had no way to go to town and someone had to take her each day, so that got old real fast. So, she bought a used Buick automobile with standard shift and she learned to drive. However, she was never confident, and she was scared to death when she got behind the wheel. There was a teen age neighbor boy that she got to drive her to town. He would leave her at her workplace, then take the car to school or leave the car and walk the short distance to school. That worked out for Gertrude and the boy. The Making Mattresses program ended in 1942 and Gertrude bought the equipment real cheap and she went into the business of remaking mattresses and upholstering chairs at her house in the country. Then she bought the house in Colquitt with the large building that she could use for her business. She sold the Buick and never drove a car again. It was quite an accomplishment for a woman of her days to come from flat broke to owning a farm and a house in town while raising her husband’s two nieces and her nephew by herself. It required a lot of hard work and determination as well as frugality.

Biography by Laverne Kimbrel Shaw and Cousin Ralph Kimbrel - 47951000