Glenn D. Garber

Glenn D. Garber, 94, died peacefully at his home on Wednesday afternoon, January 21, 2015. Born October 23, 1920, in Morgan City, Louisiana, the tenth child of Charles Franklin and Mattie Russell Garber, Mr. Garber graduated from Morgan City High School and later graduated with the first class of McNeese Junior College in 1941, where he played football and scored the first touchdown for McNeese. As a member of the "Greatest Generation," Mr. Garber then answered the call to military duty and served his country during World War II as a navigator in a B-24 Liberator aircraft that flew bombing missions over targets in Eastern Europe. When the war ended, Mr. Garber finished his education at Louisiana State University in Mechanical Engineering. In 1947, he settled in Lake Charles and married Betty Brooks, to whom he was married for fifty-seven years, until her death in 2004. Over the course of his professional career, he worked at Cities Service, PCI, and PPG Industries, as Personnel Director. Mr. Garber was an avid football fan who especially enjoyed watching his LSU Tigers. Another of his passions was whistling while working in his yard or tending his tomato garden, as many present and former neighbors could confirm. Many were the football games with the neighborhood kids in Margaret Place that he coached in the 1960's and 70's. He was a long time member of First Presbyterian Church, where he served as a deacon and elder. He also was a member of the Kiwanis Club and served a term as its President. Those left to cherish his memory are three daughters, Ellen Smith of Lake Charles, Catherine Burleson and husband Brent of Simpsonville, South Carolina, and Ann Hallam and husband John of Dallas, Texas; two sons, G. David Garber and Dr. Vernon Garber and wife Marilyn, both of Lake Charles; seven grandchildren, Lindsay Smith, Regan Smith Shaw, Kate Burleson, Brooks Burleson, Paige Burleson, James McConville and Patrick McConville; and two great grandchildren, Sydney Smith and Eden Shaw. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Betty Brooks Garber; his parents; and nine siblings, Charles, Vernon, Eugene and Jared Garber, Elise and Katherine Garber, Ella Mae Stork, and Martha Vidos. Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 24, 2015, at First Presbyterian Church in Lake Charles, under the direction of Johnson Funeral Home. Reverend Chandler Willis will officiate. Interment will be at Highland Memory Gardens. Visitation will be at the funeral home on Friday from 5 until 9 p.m. and on Saturday at the church from 2 p.m. until service time. Mr. Garber will be remembered for his honesty, integrity, strength of character, love of family, winning smile, boisterous laugh, happy nature, and forever whistling of hymns and "Beer, Beer for Old Lake Charles High." Memorial donations may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 1801 Second Avenue, Lake Charles, LA 7060l, Abraham's Tent, 2300 Fruge Street, Lake Charles, LA 70615, or the charity of choice. The family would like to express their grateful appreciation for the compassionate care given their beloved father to Dr. Tom LeBeau, Rosewood Rehabilitation Unit, St. Patrick Hospice, and caretakers, Marilyn Garber, Bernita, Shayla, Dawn, Melissa, and Tracy, who looked after Glenn in the last months of his life.