Mattie Bell Gibson Howard

Mattie Bell Gibson was born in Helena, Arkansas on 6/12-1929 to C. Harry Gibson and Betty Mary Burkes Gibson. She was the oldest of three children, John, and Barbara (who died as a child). Mattie was a very quiet child. She was athletic and loved to read, and run and play on the banks of the Mississippi river and explore the woods around the “Hollow”. Her young life revolved around activities at New Light Baptist Church and Eliza Miller High School where she sang in the choir and played basketball before graduating in 1947.
Mattie attended and graduated from St. Mary’s Business School in Buffalo, New York. In 1948, she married David King and gave birth to her first child, David King Jr. In 1953, Mattie entered Homer G. Phillips school of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated in 1956. Later, she attended St. Francis University in Joliet, Indiana receiving a Bachelor of Science in 1986. She married Walter Howard and they spent more than 47 years together happily working to develop their careers in nursing and real estate. To this union two children were born, Sylvia and Winston.
After her retirement in 1992, Mattie enjoyed her hobbies, including reading, walking, sewing, making and decorating cakes and candy, painting and drawing, and gardening. She was known for her delicious rum cakes and rum balls. She had a strong belief in God, nurtured by her parents, people in the “Hollow”, at Eliza Miller, and at St. Mary’s. Mattie moved to Michigan in 2015, but maintained her love for her long-time residential home of Indianapolis.
Mattie leaves to mourn, her brother, Dr. John O. Gibson, PhD., two sons David King Jr., and Winston “Jerome” Howard (Swandolyn), a daughter, Dr. Sylvia A. Howard, PhD., two Grand-sons, Walter and Michael, a nephew Jay, her adopted son, Harold Conway, her close friends, Marlene Mooney, Minerva Nicholas, and Lisa Nicholson, and a host of extended family members and friends.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2019 from 10am to 12pm at Flanner Buchanan – Washington Park North, 2706 Kessler Blvd. W Drive with services beginning at 12pm. Entombment: Washington Park North Cemetery.