Mrs. Geneva Rose Norton Wilkes, 99, resident of Lewisburg, died Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020, at Village Manor Assisted Living.

A funeral service will be conducted Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, at 10 a.m. at Bills-McGaugh & Hamilton Funeral Home with Reverend Mark Irvin officiating. Burial will follow in Bryant Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Monday, Jan. 20 from 4 - 7 p.m. at the funeral home.

Geneva Rose Wilkes was born in Lawrenceburg, TN, Oct. 18, 1920, to parents, Henry Dalton Norton and Hattie Estelle Dooley. Geneva completed high school in Lewisburg in 1938. She met and married Thomas J. Wilkes in 1943, just as the United States entered WW2. They lived in New Jersey for two years where Thomas was stationed with the Army. Their first child Donald Royce Wilkes was born May 13, 1944. After the war, they settled in Indiana and finally Dayton where their second son Michael W. Wilkes was born July 22, 1956. They returned to the south to join the aerospace race in Huntsville, AL in 1962. Finally Tom and Geneva moved one last time to Lewisburg in 1966, to open the Teledyne aerospace plant where Tom worked till his sudden death on Jan. 15, 1982. Her first son, Don, a renowned aerospace physicist, passed away July 6, 2006, from an extended illness. Geneva had two granddaughters from Don, Lynn Ann Marshall, age 53, of Gulf Shores, AL and Janice Lea Wilkes, who tragically died as a result of a chronic illness in 2004, at the age of 31. She also has one granddaughter, Cydney Allyse Wilkes, age 29, of Brooklyn, NY. Geneva had two great-grandchildren from Lynn, Levi P. Leeper, age 33, and Leslie R. Rogers, age 31, both residing in Huntsville, AL with their children, Mary Allison Field-Leeper, age 11 and Kyle Ann Rogers, age 11 respectively.

Geneva had an enormous extended family, notably Terry and Rosarito (Chit) Hernando, with their daughter, Jill H. Osborne, who were like a daughter and granddaughter respectively. Also many others too numerous to name who came to make their lives in the U.S. from the Philippines in the 70’s. Tom and Geneva acted as ambassadors to provide a home away from home environment for these individuals who immigrated here to fill the need for superior nursing health care in Marshall Medical Center.

Geneva is preceded in death by her parents, Henry and Hattie Norton; siblings, Earl Grant Norton, Roberta Rollins, Reba Glendon, Harold Norton, and Estelle Langley. She is survived by her siblings, William Norton of Huntsville, Joy Daughrity of Lewisburg, and Barbara Edwards of Huntsville.

Bills-McGaugh & Hamilton Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.