When Nallie Edith Gilbert was growing up, going to church was expected.
“Mama always said, ‘Just be in church.’ It didn’t matter about the denomination; just go to church,” said Gilbert, the associate pastor of Greater Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church. “So that’s what we did.”
She was a regular at Sunday school, worship services, association meetings, musical performances and other events. And even though she was bashful when she first heard God’s call, she eventually yielded to it.
“God knew he could depend on me, because whatever decision I make, I always go to him first,” she said.
Now 70, she stays busy with preaching and musical activities at Greater Mount Pleasant and speaks frequently at other churches, in addition to being very active in the Order of the Eastern Star.
She said people often seek her out for advice — and sometimes they’ll confide in her even if they won’t confide in their own pastors.
“You’ll be surprised sometimes at the people who do come to you, because you wouldn’t have any idea that they’re having problems,” she said.
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Gilbert was born in the Pine Bluff community in Carroll County, southeast of Sidon. She was one of seven children, and her parents, Sam and Ophelia Sample, were sharecroppers.
“We never had a lot of money, but we always had plenty of food,” she said. “And we never missed having something for Christmas.”
She said their lifestyle was much like the television show “Little House on the Prairie.” The family raised chickens, turkeys, ducks and other animals, stored the meat in smokehouses and also did canning. Her mother even made the children clothes out of flour sacks for a while.
“Our parents never did allow us to go to clubs and cafes,” she said. “All our pleasure was going to church and working on the farm.”
Her mother’s grandfather was a Methodist bishop, and her grandfather, Walter Jackson, had brothers who were preachers.
She also has ties to another well-known family: Samuel Jackson, a brother of Walter Jackson, was the grandfather of singer Michael Jackson. Gilbert said she never met the pop star but did hear stories about his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson. She recalled meeting them once at a family reunion in Greenwood.
“They were very friendly and nice,” she said. “Katherine was a vegetarian, so she didn’t eat meat. We’d prepared all this barbecue. Joe did, though.”
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Gilbert attended Hyman Chapel Missionary Baptist Church’s school, then Sidon Industrial School and then Amanda Elzy High, where she graduated in 1964.
She said she has always found a way to put her skills and interests to good use.
For example, she took up piano early in life and started playing at churches when she was about 14. In addition to her own church — Second Mount Pleasant and then Greater Mount Pleasant — she played at Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church for more than 30 years.
During her senior year at Elzy, she found use for another homegrown talent. Elzy was looking for its first black female bus driver, and her name came up.
“The principal came to my daddy because he knew that I drove tractors and bean trucks and everything,” she said. “And he asked him about me driving a school bus. And Daddy told him he guessed it would be all right.”
Driving those vehicles could be a challenge — “we had the torn-up buses, and the white kids had the new buses” — but it also was a source of income, in addition to what she earned playing piano in church.
“I was making $5 a Sunday playing piano and $40 a month driving a school bus,” she said. “So I had money.”
She continued driving buses for many years and developed a reputation as a disciplinarian who also cared about the students. Her last assignment was to drive handicapped students, and she would also bring them cold drinks on hot days or bring paper and pencils for those who didn’t have any.
“I always loved them and took care of them,” she said.
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After graduating from Elzy, Gilbert earned a degree from Bradley School of Cosmetology. But even though she enjoyed doing hair and nails — and did so part time for a while — she found more success in sewing.
She took home economics from seventh grade through high school, and although she didn’t care for cooking, she found she loved sewing. She went on to do alterations and other work for people all over the community for many years, as well as businesses, including Evelyn’s and Graber’s department store.
“I made prom dresses; I made little boys’ tuxedos and things,” she said. “In fact, my children, all of their clothes were homemade clothes until they got grown.”
While working at Rocky Manufacturing, she would pick up alterations from Evelyn’s on her lunch break and take them home to work on later — all while raising five children. She even made the curtains for the office of her husband, Willie Gilbert, when he was director of the Juvenile Detention Center in Greenwood.
The two of them were married from 1966 until his death in 2010. They had three sons and two daughters, and she now has 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She still lives in the house on Western Circle that they moved into in 1970.
“He always was a good provider,” she said. “He worked all the time — two and three jobs — and I did the same.”
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In 2005, Gilbert was ordained and licensed by Pastor Cleaster Randle to serve as his assistant. After his health declined, she carried on the ministry for about a year until the Rev. Kenneth Knox came on as pastor. After Knox left, she was in charge again, leading services three times a month.
The Rev. Milton Evans, a former pastor of nearby Travelers Rest M.B. Church, is to be ordained as Greater Mount Pleasant’s next senior pastor soon. He will preach on the first, second and fourth Sundays, and Gilbert will preach on the third and fifth. She also teaches Sunday school and helps wherever else she is needed.
“When I come in here, if the musician is late, I’ll go get on the organ or keyboard and start playing until one comes in,” she said.
She has dealt with challenges in ministry over the years, including some men who don’t think women should be pastors. They might equate the pastor to the head of a household, but “think about what would happen to some families if the woman didn’t step up,” she said. “So it could go either way. God uses the strongest person.”
Gilbert also has become a source for history of local people because she keeps copies of obituaries for her family members and many others she has known.
“I have an attachment to people, so I always keep their obituaries,” she said.
Gilbert said she likes being in a community where people know her and remember her, even if it’s just from riding her school bus years ago. She also stays active raising flowers and doing other things.
“Even though I just had knee surgery, I’m out there in my yard trying to do something,” she said.
Recently, while walking around her neighborhood, she saw two men sitting on a porch and heard one tell the other that he’d known her all his life.
“He said, ‘She’s a good woman. I’d do anything in the world for Ms. Gilbert,’” she recalled. “And you know, it made me feel good that I’d lived the kind of life that he could say that.”
• Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
