Graveside services will be conducted on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the Vanleer Cemetery in the Promise Land Community. Military honors will be observed.
Joseph Clay Gilbert was born December 24, 1939, in the Promise Land Community to Robert and Essie Vanleer Gilbert and died May 15, 2025, in Arcata, California. He was the third of eight children. He attended elementary school in the community of his birth and graduated from Hampton High School in Dickson, TN. After two semesters at Tennessee State University, he dropped out to serve in the United States Air Force. Prior to his honorable discharge from the Air Force, he was stationed in San Francisco. He decided to make the California Bay Area his home.
He began woodworking as an artist shortly after he had settled in Northern California. While living in Tennessee he was an active member of the Stone Chapel Church in Cumberland Furnace, receiving consistent pastoral care during his time there.
Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by his sisters, Bobbie Gilbert Beasly, Beverly Gilbert Williams and Rita Gilbert.