Eleanor Loraine Gibson has always been something of a marvel, although she would tell you that she is an ordinary woman who has just led an interesting life. Her father always said the best part of her was her discerning Hungarian blood. She was born January 12, 1924 in El Paso, the second of eight children, to John and Lillie Mae Horvath. She married Wilbur D. Gibson on March 29, 1947, in Aztec, NM, not long after they met at a dance at The Grange Hall in Hesperus, CO. They moved to Hereford in 1950. Eleanor adored her husband Wilbur, "Gib", and has two daughters, Mary Lynn Mabray and Mona Gale Gibson, a granddaughter, Reagan Lee Barry, with grandson-in-law James Kirby Barry, III, and a four-year-old great grandson, Asher Dean James Barry, all from Houston, TX. Also, she has a foreign exchange daughter, Gaby Lottner Pistor of Weinheim, Germany.

Eleanor was not only a marvelous cook, but her talents stretched way beyond the front door into the flower and vegetable garden, and out into the community where she was always active in anything that pertained to the feminine side of agriculture and the beef industry. Eleanor was a member of the CowBells, the women's division of the American Cattlemen's Association, the Hereford Garden Club, and the First Baptist Church. She served as a Camp Fire Girls of America & Horizon Leader from 1956-1974, and was an honorary member of Zeta Tau Alpha. Eleanor was always the life of the party, a formidable "42" player, a second mom to many, and the consummate hostess of numerous parties and wedding showers. She was especially proud of her Mama's Treasured Recipes cookbook series, that she created with her daughters.

Eleanor is also survived by two sisters, Bertha Peden and husband Dewey and Edith Bukovec and husband Richard both of Durango, CO.; three brothers Robert Horvath, Raymond Horvath and George Horvath, of Farmington, NM. She was preceded in death by her husband, Wilbur D. Gibson, oldest sister Mary Alice Schofield of Farmington, NM, and brother John Horvath of Bloomfield, NM.