Thelma Vernell Anderson Gibson

Thelma Vernell Anderson Gibson was born in Miami on December 17, 1926 to Sweetlon Vernell Albury Anderson and Thomas Theodore Anderson. She is well known as a philanthropist in her community and as the widow of the late Reverend Canon Theodore Roosevelt Gibson. Thelma graduated from George Washington Carver High School in 1944 and attended Saint Agnes School of Nursing at Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina where she graduated in 1947. She continued her education by taking off campus courses at Catholic University in Washington, D.C, University of Miami, Florida A & M University, and Teachers College at Columbia University in New York where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. For more than fifty years, Thelma has been a trailblazer in education, mental and physical health, community and professional leadership, volunteerism and service to her church, community and family. In August 1997, she was appointed as Interim City Commissioner and served on the City of Miami Commission through November 1997.