AREA OBITUARIES -- NINA KAY CRITTENDEN GILBERT

Nina Kay Crittenden Gilbert, age 78, passed away peacefully in her sleep the morning of Wednesday, September 4, 2024. She was once again in the country, living as a resident at the Obion County Nursing Home.

Nina Kay was born the 22nd of May, 1946 to the loving couple of WA and Nadine Crittenden. The couple already had one daughter, Peggy Ann Crittenden Hale and would later add to the family another daughter, Judy Carol Crittenden Blalock, who we lost in 2011.

Nina attended Cuba High School and spent some time in Michigan where she attended a large school there with Peggy Ann. They all later moved back to Kentucky and Cuba High School where she graduated.

Nina Kay loved to roller skate. She would tell us how Tibbs or McCoy would throw her in the air and catch her. She was a great skater. One of the Pirtles tried to sponsor her to go into competition with her skating skills.

Marvin Gilbert came around and asked Nina Kay for her hand in marriage. She said yes. Although Marvin could not keep up with Nina Kay on those roller skates, he kept her adrenaline pumped up with the drag racing. She cheered him on and they took home several trophies.

They married on the 12th of June 1965. In November 1966, they had their first child, a daughter, Deanna. They bought the old Gilbert Farm and added on to the four room house. On the 4th of June, 1970 they had a baby boy, Stacey Bruce. We kept momma busy. The following year, the twins were born, Richard Ivan and Ward Allen. However, the boys were laid to rest and Nina Kay never got to see her babies. She lost her father to cancer before the twins were born. And then in 1984, she lost her mother, Nadine Newton Crittenden Starks.

Nina Kay helped on the farm, driving a tractor in the summer and worked at H.I.S. the other months. She would bake a cake for the ladies at work and would forget to hide it from daddy, cause there was always a piece missing when she would break it out at H.I.S. She later went to work at the Dana Plant in Fulton and then transferred to the Dana Plant in Paris, TN with two of her friends. She retired a couple of years later. She always made friends wherever she went.

Nina Kay's smile was infectious. She was a prankster. She was a great cook. She was crafty. She was in our lives growing up, taking us girl scout or boy scout meetings, helping with our homework projects, or making cookies for our classmates. The only thing I know she was not good at, pulling another car by chain from Fulton to Water Valley. I'll tell you that story if you ask... let's say, she forgot she was pulling daddy behind her and passed a car going too slow...(and he never asked her again).

She was a member of the Water Valley Baptist Church and she attended right up to the very end until she couldn't. But she was missed when she wasn't sitting in her spot and they would call and check on her.

Momma enjoyed having family over anytime. She enjoyed having friends over to play cards or just sit on the front porch and visit. She loved life in general.

Then life as she knew it happened. Alzheimers sneaked into her life and Marvin's life. They lost their home of 50+ years in 2021, she lost Marvin in 2021, lost her son, Stacey in 2023 and now, she has rejoined her boys and the rest of her family and friends. I couldn't be happier for her now, laying her eyes on those twin boys, and having her husband, her son, her parents, sister, and Mama Critt greet her... it brings tears to our eyes.

Nina Kay was a wonderful wife, mother, sister, aunt, and everything in between. I could go on about momma but I think you get the fact that she was well liked and loved by all those who knew her.

Nina Kay is survived by her daughter, Deanna (Ron) Peevyhouse of Martin, TN and a grandson, Zachary Bruce Gilbert of Mayfield, KY.

Visitation will be Friday, September 6, 2024 starting at 11 AM and continue till the funeral services at 2 PM at Hornbeak Funeral Home. Nina Kay will be laid to rest next to her husband and sons at the Water Valley Cemetery.