Brittney Gilbert, who lived parts of her life on the road and later founded a trucking school in Leflore County, was known for being humble and incredibly giving, according to family members.
Gilbert
“She was very outgoing and loved by everyone,” said Janice Ross, Mrs. Gilbert’s mother.
Gilbert died unexpectedly Nov. 29 in her Greenwood home. Ross, who came across her daughter’s body, said an autopsy is still being completed. Mrs. Gilbert was 33.
Mrs. Gilbert was born in Greenwood and spent most of her youth in Memphis, where she graduated from high school and also did some studying at the University of Memphis, Ross said.
Mrs. Gilbert left Memphis and returned to Greenwood in the mid-2000s, doing a variety of odd jobs, her mother said.
After speaking with some friends who were truck drivers, Mrs. Gilbert enrolled in a truck driving school in Jackson to pursue her commercial driver’s license.
For about eight years, she spent much of her time on the road, working for different logistics companies, hauling goods and traveling to places such as Colorado, California and New York, said Lashunda Brown-Davis, a cousin.
Mrs. Gilbert’s decision to pursue trucking, a typically male-dominated field, surprised her family.
“She was so beautiful,” said Ungaleek Stanley, another cousin. “She didn’t look like a truck driver. She was a girlie girl.”
Still, Mrs. Gilbert loved driving trucks, and in some cases she even took her daughter, Braelyn Johnson, who was selected as Miss Eighth Grade for Greenwood Middle School this year, on road trips for mother-daughter bonding, Brown-Davis said.
Although Mrs. Gilbert loved to travel for her job, it meant she was away from her family for weeks at a time. In order to spend more time with her daughter, Mrs. Gilbert launched Queen B. Trucking School, where people could earn their commercial driving licenses.
The school was also formed to provide a local way for people to learn a trade, Brown-Davis said. Previously, people in Leflore County interested in getting commercial drivers’ licenses had to go to a school in Jackson.
Family of Mrs. Gilbert’s said she was always giving, such as by offering discounts so students could enroll in her class or donating needed items and school supplies to her daughter’s school.
“She had a heart of gold,” Brown-Davis said.
Stanley said Mrs. Gilbert was a real-life “superwoman.”
“She was a great mother. At 33, she accomplished a lot,” Stanley went on.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Gilbert is survived by her husband, Tracy Gilbert.
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
