Rudolph Robert Gibson

Memorial service for Rudolph Robert Gibson will be Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 11:00 A.M. at the Mount Vernon City Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Texas.

Rudolph Robert Gibson of Princeton, Texas and previously of Mount Vernon, Texas, passed away on January 27, 2020, after an extended illness. He was 86.

Rudolph was born on September 19, 1933 in Rockford, Illinois.  He lived part of his early life in College Station, Texas.  He was known universally as "Rudy," and he overcame various personal challenges through sheer will.  He endured painful rehab stints following near-crippling injuries and complicated surgeries. Sometimes it seemed he had more "lives" than his beloved cats.  He paired a keen sense of humor with an unrelenting work ethic.

As a teenager in Rockford, he tore around town on a Harley he'd worked for and bought. He also loved to drive boats and water ski.  In 1952, as a 19-year-old Marine mortar specialist, he faced North Koreans and Chinese beyond the 38th Parallel — sometimes beyond the front lines.  After the Korean War, he returned to civilian life and worked as a machinist in Los Angeles for a time.  He eventually moved back to Texas, where he became a stellar tool and die man in the Dallas area.  If the job required speed and accuracy to ten-thousandths of an inch, Rudy was your man. Later, during his years around Mount Vernon, (and beginning at nearby Lake Cypress Springs) he taught himself to fix boat engines.  He had a home-based repair business for years, and played a lot of golf at the hometown course he helped administer as a board member.  As a strong-willed man, he could be a tough adversary if he thought something was wrong or unfair, but he could also be generous, caring and dutiful. When his wife slowed down toward the end of her life, he took care of her and their two cats, shopped, cooked and tended his garden and yard, and was an ever-present handyman with a genius for many home projects. Eventually, the Gibsons moved to Princeton, east of McKinney, to be closer to family.  Rudy followed the Dallas Cowboys and found daily strength from his Pentecostalist faith, and for a time placed Bibles as a Gideon.  Later, he started a lay ministry (at personal expense), distributing full sermons on cassettes and CDs to truck drivers unable to attend regular services.  As a die-hard Marine, his patriotism wasn't for everyone.  Once he and a passerby traded words over his front-yard display of service branch flags.  Eventually, the interloper moved on and the flags stayed until the commemorative day had passed.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Durene Reeves Gibson, a Mount Vernon native; and older brothers, Frank and Bill.

He is survived by "sons" Mark Teague of McKinney; Pat and Ronny Teague, both of Prosper; and Len Teague of Tyler/Bullard; brothers, Richard Gibson of Rockford, Illinois, and Robert Gibson; 11 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

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