Mrs. LaVerne Kilgore, 94, of Irwinville, Georgia entered Heaven January 29, 2023.
Graveside services will be held 2 P.M., Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at Irwinville Cemetery in Irwin, County, Georgia with Tommy Braziel officiating.
Mrs. Kilgore was born March 29, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, to the late Henry Arthur and Gladys May Thompson.
Mrs. Kilgore lived the first 20 years of her life in Chicago before she began a pen pal relationship with a dashing serviceman from Irwin County. After a short time, she married that serviceman, James “Jim” Kilgore, and began a life with him that would take her all over the United States and Spain before finally settling in Irwin County in the early 1970’s on the Kilgore family farm. Mrs. Kilgore’s earliest job was working as an elevator operator in Chicago and then in 1949, as a young military wife she ironed the shirts of the officers for 25 cents a shirt. She had quite the lucrative business. After moving to the farm, Mrs. Kilgore worked as a bookkeeper at Irwinville Peanut and Grain for seventeen years. It was not uncommon to see her on her tractor in the fields with her husband and son, Jimmy, after already working a full day. She and her husband were active members of Irwinville Baptist Church where she served as the treasurer for many years. Later in life, Mrs. Kilgore enjoyed traveling with her niece, Denise Atkinson and loved going to craft fairs and visiting her sister, Evelyn, in Illinois, stopping and shopping at antique malls along the way.
Mrs. Kilgore was known for her kindness, her giving heart, and being dependable and working hard. She always said that saying “can’t” was not an option and “if it was worth doing, it was worth doing right.”
Mrs. Kilgore was preceded in death by her husband James “Jim” Kilgore, her son, Jimmy Kilgore, her sister, Evelyn Held (Bob), her sister-in-law, Latrelle Kilgore Atkinson (Bill), and her brother-in-law Lamar Kilgore (Jean).