Florence Lorene (Schnorr) Gibson, born March 13, 1912 in Mineral, Kansas, daughter of Charles and Nina (Givens) Schnorr, died February 7, 2010 in Sedona, Arizona.
A coal-miner’s daughter, Florence grew up in Cherokee and Crawford Counties, Kansas in poverty. She lived with her family in Mineral and McCune, Kansas, as well as many oil-field camps in Oklahoma and Kansas. She graduated from McCune High School in 1929. She moved with her family to Farmington, New Mexico in 1929, only to return in 1931 to attend the Mount Carmel Catholic Hospital Nurses Training School. She graduated in 1934, and passed the Kansas Nurses registration examination with high marks. She practiced her profession in Kansas until her marriage to Walter R. Gibson in 1936. They lived at, and operated, the Mexican Water Trading Post on the Navajo Indian Reservation until 1942 when they moved to Farmington, New Mexico. There Florence raised three sons, Robert Charles, Michael Trent and Douglas Neil.
In 1967 she and Walter, with business partners, built and operated the Monument Valley Inn in Kayenta, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. In 1975 they both retired and returned to New Mexico. Her husband Walter died in 1996, and in 1997 Florence moved into a retirement community in Sedona, Arizona.
Florence leaves behind two sons, Michael T. Gibson and Douglas N. Gibson. Her eldest son Robert C. Gibson preceded her in death. She leaves a granddaughter Heather Bruce, her husband Craig Bruce and two great-grandsons Alexander and Andrew Bruce.
She leaves two sisters, Cathren Harris of Albuquerque, N.M. and Betty Doak of Farmington, N.M. Her brother Rolla Schnorr preceded her in death.
Many nieces and nephews of two generations, too numerous to mention, mourn her death.
Florence endured the poverty of the great depression as well as the burden of the dust bowl years. God give you rest dear mother.
SEDONA, Ariz. —
