Barbara Gatwood Thompson

At the age of 101, and in the presence of family, Barbara Gatwood Thompson peacefully and triumphantly finished her race Sunday evening, November 9, 2025 at Providence Assisted Living in Searcy, Arkansas. She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Vance Maynard Thompson, Jr., and all five of her siblings: Robin Gatwood of Hickory, NC; Dean Gatwood of Louisville, KY; John Gatwood of Nashville, TN; Elden Gatwood of Pittsburgh, PA; and Mary Gatwood of Nashville, TN. She is survived by her three children — Vance Maynard Thompson III, Elden Jan Thompson, and Barbara Greer Thompson Llewellyn — along with twelve grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren. Born on November 24, 1923, in Nashville, TN, to Elden J. Gatwood, a musician and teacher, and Margaret Barbara DeLay Gatwood, an artist and devoted homemaker, she entered a world attended by melody, a home that echoed with a soundscape that would shape the rest of her life. The fourth of six children, all talented musicians, she had a loving relationship with her parents—adoring her father—and genuinely enjoyed a deep friendship with her siblings, particularly her sister, Mary. Barbara graduated from the Peabody Demonstration School, before attending Peabody College on scholarship. Her time at Peabody was marked by academic success and faithful service. As a Senior, she received the prestigious Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award—a selective honor given to college students who quietly but intentionally lead through compassion, kindness, and unselfish service to others. She concluded her studies with a Bachelor of Arts in English, where, at the commencement ceremony, she played cello, accompanied by her father—a golden moment she treasured all of her life. Following college were “the war” years, during which Barbara volunteered at a local veterans’ hospital, and as a conditioning instructor at Ward-Belmont College, along with playing cello in the Nashville Symphony. But the great turning of her life happened in 1945 when she married Vance Maynard Thompson Jr.—a Vanderbilt grad and Naval Air Force pilot with a confidence and steadiness she fell in love with during college. Their honeymoon years played out in Pensacola, FL during the final days of the war before they solidly planted roots in Memphis, TN. Once settled, Barbara resumed her musical career, playing cello for thirty-nine years with the Memphis Symphony, while also providing music for local churches, communion services, and annual performances of Messiah and other seasonal works. She served as a den mother for her two Boy Scouts, and was actively involved in the Memphis Garden Club and the Memphis Music Club. And it was her daughter, Greer, that had the unique blessing of sharing not only her mother’s love of music, but a full season performing alongside her in the Memphis Symphony before her retirement. Memphis was home. It’s where she and Maynard raised their family, cultivated lasting friendships, and anchored themselves in Christ for more than fifty years in the grace-filled rhythms of Second Presbyterian Church. In later life, Barbara faithfully visited friends confined to nursing homes or limited by illness. She prayed nightly for her growing family, calling each one by name. She marked birthdays with thoughtful gifts — always beautifully wrapped, always on time. At Christmas, she transformed her home into a wonderland of music and song, gifts and memories—a place where love and joy felt entirely at home. She possessed a grateful and uncomplaining spirit, choosing thanksgiving over bitterness, prayer over worry, kindness over self-pity, and Jesus always at the center of her life. Even in decline, her humor was always intact, and her joy never ceasing. One of her favorite lines was, “Getting old isn’t for chickens!” Or “Fewer and fewer of my body parts are showing up for roll call.” We already miss her wit, her warmth, her gentleness, and her wisdom. Yet we remain profoundly grateful for her legacy of love and faith, which set a standard difficult to match but worthy of every effort. By the testimony of her long life, she showed us the beautiful and lasting fruit that love can bear. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” — 1 Corinthians 13:7–8 Funeral services, celebrating Barbara's life, will be held on Friday, November 28, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. at Valley Baptist Church, 3328 AR-36, Searcy, AR 72143, approximately 2 miles west of Powell Funeral Home. A catered lunch will be served at Valley Baptist Church at 1:30 p.m. If planning to attend the luncheon, please RSVP in the comment section of Mrs. Thompson's obituary page. Attire: We invite you to wear bright and joyful colors as we celebrate Mimi's life -- both on this side of heaven, as a life well-lived, and her eternal life on the other side, which we cannot now see. Although we grieve, we are grateful that we do not grieve as those without hope since we know that Jesus has overcome death and Barbara's physical death is not the end of her story. We celebrate with her as she dances in heaven and enjoys the most beautiful music she's ever heard! "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." - 1 Thes.4:13 & 14 "Life is Eternal" I am standing upon the seashore A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of a white cloud just where the seas and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then some one at my side says, “There! She’s gone.” Gone where? Gone from my sight-that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her; and just at the moment when some one at my side says, “There! She’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “There she comes!” Arrangements are entrusted to Powell Funeral Home of Searcy. www.powellfuneralhome.net.

Barbara Gatwood Thompson

November 24, 1923 - November 9, 2025