Jean Carroll Gerwig

Mrs. Jean Carroll Gerwig, 94, was born in Waycross, Ware County, GA. Her father, Edwin Thornton Carroll, was a railroad conductor for the Atlantic Coast Line and her mother, Eva Soloman Carroll, had been a pioneer telegrapher and a station agent for an Alabama railroad. Jean graduated from Waycross High School and attended the University of Alabama. During World War II, she was employed by the U.S. Army at the Waycross Army Airfield. During that period, as a member of Cotillion dance group, she became acquainted with a soldier stationed at Fort Stewart, named Robert (Bob) Gerwig, a friendship which grew into marriage in 1945. After the war, Jean and Bob settled in Atlanta, where a son, Robert Carroll was born to them in 1950. Subsequently, Jean became a secretary for the faculty of the Emory University Law School, a position she held for nearly thirty years before retiring in 1987. In her final year at the law school, she earned the university's "Award of Distinction" for outstanding service and upon her retirement her "Faculty Friends" presented her with a plaque inscribed in part: "She Taught the Teachers Kindness by her example." That inscription captured the essence of her innate character, for kindness characterized her lifestyle. In Waycross, Jean was a member of the Waycross First Methodist, a dominant, church interest which she continued in the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church at Emory University, where she was active as a teacher in the children's division of the church school, member of various women's group, the altar Guild, and the Judson C. Ward Class. She was also secretary of the DeKalb Board of Directors of the American Red Cross. Jean is survived by her husband of 67 years Robert "Bob" Gerwig, and son, Robert C. Gerwig, both of Atlanta, nephew; James E. Hart Jr. and his wife Jane, of Waycross, nieces, Mrs. Carroll Whitley of Tucker, Mrs. Janice Whittle, and her husband, U.S. Army Ret. Col. Al, of Lakeland, FL, several grand nieces and nephews and great- grand nieces and nephews. A funeral service will be held at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, July 3, in the chapel of A.S. Turner & Sons, with Rev. Susan Pinson officiating. Interment will follow in Decatur Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service on Tuesday at A.S. Turner and Sons Funeral Home and Crematory.

Funeral Home:
A. S. Turner & Sons
2773 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA
30033