Lillian Helen Muir Gilbert

On December 21, 2018, God called Lillian Gilbert home. God called her beloved husband, Bill, one week later.

Lillian was born March 30, 1935 in Midland, MD. She graduated from Beall High School in Frostburg in 1953. After graduation, she moved to Gaithersburg and began working in the Personnel Office of the Montgomery County Government. It was there that she met Bill.

It all started at an elevator.  She asked, “So Mr. Gilbert, who do you think is going to win the World Series?” The two married on November 14, 1959 and recently celebrated their 59th anniversary. They always said that True Love was their song, and there is no better way to describe their years of devotion to each other. As their daughter-in-law Katy says, “I was fortunate to have a front row seat to witness one of the greatest love stories I will ever see in my lifetime.”

Lillian loved her faith. She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church for many of the last 50 years, enjoying fellowship, working in the office, playing the piano, playing in the handbell choir and playing the carillon before services. This combined her love of faith and music.

Lillian loved her family. She quit her promising career with the county government to stay at home when David was born. She was always at David’s events growing up, often as the coach’s wife who would be responsible for water jugs, cups, first-aid kits, keeping score, and much more. She and her siblings cared for their parents as they aged. She hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers, sometimes with more than 20 people. She played the piano for family sing-alongs. She heroically and lovingly cared for Bill as his dementia progressed.

Lillian loved her sports. She may have been married to a best-selling sports author, but she knew as much about baseball as he did. The joke in the family was that she beat Bill to the sports section of the paper every morning. And it was true! If there was a game on television, Lillian would find it.

Lillian was preceded in death by her parents, Janet Carmichael McKinley and James Gordon Muir, as well as her sisters Beatrice Ambrose, Betty Hartz, Sis Yommer, and Jean Orme, and her brothers Bob Muir and Gordon Muir.

She was as kind, caring and sweet a person as God ever put on this earth. She was the best wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. She will be greatly missed, but her example and her love live on in our hearts, and we look forward to the day when we will be reunited in heaven.

Visitation on Saturday, January 5, 2019, from 9:30 until 11:00 am at Grace United Methodist Church, 119 North Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877, where the Funeral Service will take place at 11am. Interment with her husband, William, at 1:15pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2019 at Parklawn Memorial Park, Rockville, Maryland. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Grace United Methodist Church.