Aug. 3, 1914 –

Jan. 13, 2012

The funeral service for Myrtle Gainous Lambert, 97, of Bainbridge, who passed away Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, at her daughter’s residence, was held Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, at New Fountainhead Baptist Church with Rev. Bruce Hoose and Rev. Steve Poppell officiating. Interment followed at Salem Baptist Church Cemetery with Wayne Lambert Jr., Robbie Parker, Jay Lambert, Aaron Goodman, John Parker, and Shane Lambert serving as active pallbearers.

Myrtle Gainous Lambert was born Aug. 3, 1914, in rural Grady County, Ga., near the small community of Spring Hill. She was the third of eight surviving children of Avie Whigham Gainous and Harvey Gainous. She spent her early childhood on small Grady County farms and received her grade schooling at nearby Spring Hill. During the great depression (1929-33) her parents moved to rural Decatur County and took up residence on the small Lambert farm near Open Pond, living in a three-room log house constructed by the Lambert family. There she met and married Johnny Vince Lambert in December 1933. Shortly afterward, her parents returned to rural Grady County and she and Vince moved into the log house to continue farming and begin a family. In that little log house she gave birth to four children without ever seeing a doctor, assisted only by a mid-wife and family members at each birth. She was totally devoted to her husband and family and spent her youth and all its energies in fulfilling their joint commitment of raising a good family and making a go of it on the farm. She spent the remainder of her life on the Lambert farm and always lived within a mile of their first little house.

After she and Vince retired from farming, they bought a motor home and together enjoyed traveling and fishing. At Christmas 1978, she lost her devoted husband, Vince, to heart failure but continued enjoying fishing in nearby ponds and traveling to see her children.

Myrtle also enjoyed gardening and was often seen mowing the grass, raking straw and tidying up her flowers, even after reaching the age of 90. She was a member of the Salem Baptist Church at Open Pond and New Fountain Head Baptist Church near Four Mile Pond.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Johnny Vince Lambert (1911-1978).

She is survived by her four children: Theodore Harold Lambert, a retired attorney, and his stepson, Jack Edwards; Wayne Winston Lambert, a retired Air Force pilot, and his wife Doris Ellen (Pee Wee), and their two sons, Wayne W. Lambert Jr. (great- grandchildren Kelsey, Hannah and Nathaniel) and Lt. Col. Benjamin Shane Lambert and wife Teresa (great-grandchildren Philip, Maria, Greta, Oliver and Elijah ); Betty Jean Parker and husband Johnson, a retired banker, and their two children, D’Nena Parker Lanier and husband Bill (great-grandchildren Justin and Parker) and Robbie Parker (great-grandchildren John and Will Parker); and J.R. Lambert, a retired farmer, and wife Donna, and their three children, Aaron and April Goodman (great- grandchildren Adam and Anna Beth), Jay and Mikki Lambert (great-grandchildren Garrett and Tate) and Teresa Lambert (great- grandchildren Dillon Casteel and Sara Dollar); and two sisters, Rosa Lee White of Bainbridge and Winnie Mae Durham of Thomasville, Ga.

She lived through and witnessed historic advances in American history and technology, from the horse and buggy to deep space exploration. She leaves now a family inspired by her love and proud of her remarkable achievements.

Ivey Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.