Sibyl McDougald Wilkinson was born in Vernon Parish, Louisiana on September 1, 1923 and died in Huntsville, Alabama June 28, 2019 at the age of 95 years.
Visitation will be at Laughlin Service Funeral Home from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, June 30. Funeral service will be in the historic Sanctuary of Huntsville First United Methodist Church at noon on Monday, July 1, 2019. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.
Sibyl grew up in Savannah and Claxton, Georgia. As a college student she met her future husband, James Chason Wilkinson. After they married, and after his service in the Pacific with the U.S. Marines during World War 2 returning as a disabled veteran, they lived in Atlanta, Claxton, and for many years in Florida before retiring and calling Huntsville, Alabama home. During the 45 years Sibyl has lived in Huntsville, she has been active in civic, community and church activities.
She has received several prominent awards:
* The Clan MacDougall Award for her dedication to the Clan MacDougall Society and Scottish heritage.
* The Harriett B. “Happy” Smith Distinguished Ladies’ Award for Outstanding Achievement and Meritorious Service for and in behalf of the 2d Marine Division Association. She was active in the Semper Fi Community and the Wounded Warrior Program.
*The Somerled Award recognizing her as an outstanding member of the 2013 Scottish Games at Grandfather Mountain and honoring her civic work.
*The Distinguished Service Award presented by the Commanding General of the 2d Marine Division, the only woman and civilian to ever receive this award.
*The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Girl Scouts of America.
* The 2017 Honor our Elders Award from the Rosetta James Foundation.
*The 2016 DAR Medal of Honor, which is the most prestigious honor awarded by the DAR and recognizes individuals who have shown extraordinary qualities of leadership, trustworthiness, service and patriotism.
Sibyl Wilkinson was also committed to working for the First United Methodist Church, where she has served as a past trustee and on the kitchen committee, administrative board, the historical committee and the special ministries committee. On the 40th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, she was invited as a guest of the South Korean government in Seoul, where she received an individual audience with Senior Pastor Sundo Kim, who presented her with the Key to the Kwanglim Methodist Church, which was then the largest Methodist church in the world.
At the age of 92, she was liaison for the National Convention of the Second Marine Division Association Annual Meeting in Huntsville, Alabama in September of 2015.
In Claxton, Georgia she was the Civil Defense Director during the Cuban Missile Crisis. She was Comptroller of the Ramada Inn in Cocoa Beach, Florida during the Apollo years of the 1960’s and early 1970’s. In 1975 and 1976 in Huntsville, she and her husband sponsored two Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War endedin the 1970’s. They lived in the Wilkinson home for nearly a year and became like family.
She has leadership abilities all her life, starting in high school where she was a cheerleader, sports reporter for her high school paper, and active in church and school organizations. She was chairman of the annual Claxton High Class of 1941 Reunions for many years until 2011, the 70th reunion when the class dissolved and gave the remaining funds for a scholarship for a CHS nursing student to attend Georgian Southern.
She was a Charter and Founding Member and past vice-Chairman of Historic Huntsville Foundation ; Charter Member and Past President of Gothic Guild through which she taught generations of young women etiquette and social graces and helped raise funds benefitting the community.
She has been President of the Tennessee Valley Scottish Society; two-term Chairman of the Burritt Museum Advisory Board; Past Vice President of Early Works Society, and a member of Trustee of the Huntsville First United Methodist Church; a longtime member of the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, the Huntsville Literary Society, the Huntsville Botanical Garden, and the Brandon-Wilbourn Chapter of the Marine Corps League. Her unique ability to cheer on and encourage all those around her has been a benefit to all who know her.
In 2019, at the age of 95, she was inducted into the Twickenham Town Chapter of the American Daughters of the Revolution (DAR). She also continued to work daily in the family’s real estate business and maintained her civic and church activities until three weeks before her death.
Sibyl was preceded in death by her husband, James Chason Wilkinson; her father, John Wooten McDougald; her mother and step-father, Idelle McCranie Tillman and Russell Dewey Tillman; and her sister and brother-in-law, Lenora Tillman Grumbles and George Robert Grumbles, Sr.
She is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh and Richard P. Van Valkenburgh, Jr. and Sarah Wilkinson Hereford and Tom Douglas Hereford; and by three granddaughters, Victoria Lee Van Valkenburgh, Julie Van Valkenburgh Lockwood (Robert), Sarah Lauren Van Valkenburgh Kattos (Andy) and one grandson, James Wilkinson Hereford (Chelsey); three great grandsons, William Norris, Carter Lockwood, Richard Lockwood, and three great granddaughters, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Chason Norris, Juliana Kattos and Margaret Kattos. She is also survived by nieces and nephew, Lisa Grumbles Ordway (Fred), Lea Grumbles Steinberger (Rick) and Robert Grumbles (Sarah) and numerous beloved family members and friends including cousin Zelma Reid of Kemah and Beaumont, Texas who assisted in her final caregiving.
Memorials may be made to Huntsville First United Methodist Church Great Heritage Great Future Fund, 120 Greene Street, Huntsville, Alabama 35801; the Semper Fi Community Task Force for Heroes Week, P. O. Box 1061, Madison, Alabama 35758; or a charity of your choice.
