Helen Blackwell Gardner

LEXINGTON: Services for Helen Rose Blackwell Gardner, 98, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 1, 2012, at Springdale Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Tommy McGill. Interment will follow at Celestial Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 6 until 8 p.m. Tuesday evening at Thompson Funeral Home of Lexington. Mrs. Gardner, widow of Marion Russ Gardner, went to be with the Lord, Monday, February 27, 2012. Born in Inman, SC, she was the daughter of the late Jefferson Ezra Blackwell, Sr., and Effie Lee Hall Blackwell. She was the granddaughter of J.N.F. (Uncle Buddy) and Martha Caroline Williams Blackwell of Inman. J.N.F. was mayor of Inman for five terms. She finished Inman Schools and Robinson Business College in Spartanburg. Mrs. Gardner taught children Sunday school at Boiling Springs Baptist Church of Spartanburg County for eleven years. She helped organize the training union department started with twenty-seven children in 1950 and was superintendent of the department from 1950-1955. Mrs. Gardner was a charter member of Springdale Baptist Church in West Columbia, which was organized in 1959. She had worked with children Sunday school and training union for forty-two years. Surviving are her sons: Nick Russ Gardner (Joyce) of Savannah, GA and Rev. Dan Gardner (Judy) of Gilbert; daughter, Dorothy Martin (Mike) of Pelion; brother, Glenn Blackwell of Shreveport, LA; five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Mrs. Gardner was preceded in death by brothers, Rev. Doug Blackwell, J.E. Blackwell and James H. Blackwell.