Annis Elizabeth Gingery

December 20, 1919 - July 8, 2015

With a birth date of December 20, 1919, Annis Elizabeth (Betty) Gingery entered the world as a Christmas present for her parents, William Russell and Susan Mabel Baldwin. Betty, the apple of her father’s eye, grew up in the town where she was born, Kokomo, Indiana. After graduating from Kokomo High School, Betty attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she earned a bachelor’s degree and met her future husband, Robert Walter Gingery of Indianapolis, Indiana. They were wed on June 7, 1942, and remained together until Robert died seventy years later in October, 2012. After graduating from Earlham College, Betty taught home economics in Amboy, Indiana, but her teaching position disappeared when the school burned down. Subsequently, she went to Boston, Massachusetts, where Robert was enrolled in seminary at Boston University. While he was receiving formal instruction in becoming a minister, she was learning informally the very necessary art of becoming a minister’s wife. Betty moved to Sun City Center when her husband was called to become the senior minister at the United Community Church, where she remained “in service” until she and Robert retired at the age of 78. Betty enjoyed traveling, having reached every continent except Antarctica. Her travels gave her the opportunity to collect dolls from around the world, a passion she retained throughout her life. Betty was more often in the background than in the spotlight, but in her quiet way she could be heroic. On one occasion she rushed into a busy street to save a boy who had fallen from his bicycle, rising her own life, but telling no one of the deed later on. Betty died peacefully in her sleep on July 8, 2015. Even at the end of her life she took pleasure in those things that had sustained her all along-- pictures and videos of her great grandchildren, dolls and stuffed animals, ice cream and visits from friends and family. Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, her parents, Susan Mabel Baldwin and William Russell Baldwin and her brother, Robert. She is survived by her three sons, Richard Cameron who lives with his wife, Suze, in Ridgway, Colorado, Robert Gerald who lives in Sun City Center, Florida and who was in a position to demonstrate real love for his mother in his attentiveness to her every need as she drew near to death, and Stephen Thomas of Noblesville, Indiana. She is also survived by four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She will be missed by all who knew her.