Skipper, Irene Gardner

DARLINGTON- Irene Gardner Skipper, age 82, passed away Friday, November 26, 2010, at McLeod Hospice House. Funeral services will be 2:30 p.m. Sunday at First Free Will Baptist Church, 1752 S. 4th Street, Hartsville. Interment will follow in Darlington Memory Gardens directed by Belk Funeral Home. Mrs. Skipper was born in Darlington County, daughter of the late James Steven and Minnie Howell Gardner. She served the Lord sixty-three years alongside her husband in ministry. She enjoyed teaching, working with children and although partially blind, she played the piano fifty-one years. She was always willing to help others and was a member of First Free Will Baptist Church, Hartsville. Surviving are her husband of almost sixty-three years, the Reverend James B. Skipper of Darlington; daughter, Nancy “Eileen” (Glenn) Huggins of Florence; two sons, Jimmy (Lita) Skipper of Darlington and Ronnie (Sherron) Skipper of Hartsville; also, six grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service, 1:30 -2:30 p.m. at the church. Memorials are suggested to First Free Will Baptist Church, 1752 S. 4th Street, Hartsville, SC 29550 or McLeod Hospice House, Post Office Box 100551, Florence, SC 29502-0551(www.mcleodfoundation.org.).