Mrs. Miriam J Gardner

COLUMBIA - A funeral service for Miriam Jeffers Gardner, 88, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, August 24, 2019 at Highway Pentecostal Holiness Church, with burial in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. Friday, August 23, 2019, at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.

Mrs. Gardner died Tuesday, August 20, 2019. Born in Blaney, SC, she was a daughter of the late Furman Kingston Jeffers and Katherine Bowen Jeffers. She grew up in the Olympia Community and received her Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of South Carolina. In August of 1952, she married Leonard Gardner, Jr. Miriam taught music at Monticello High School from 1952-1954 and from 1957-1958. She was a choir director, pianist, and vocalist in several churches in the Columbia area who also taught piano privately in her home.

Surviving are her children, Catherine Gardner Knapp (Hiatt) of Providence, RI, Leonard Jeffers Gardner (Mary) of Blackstock, SC, Timothy Joseph Gardner (Lorie) of Columbia, SC and Stanford Rabon Gardner (Gretchen) of Columbia, SC; grandchildren, Gardner Knapp, Anna Knapp, Jeffers Gardner (Brittany), Sarah Dacus (Trey), Matthew Gardner, and Amanda Applegate (Robert); great-granchildren, Stella, Tripp, Veda Claire, Millie, Fletcher, Creighton, Sadie, and Brett; sisters, Nadine Bigby and Blondell Rodgers (E. Rabon).

The family would like to extend a special thanks to Mary Katherine, Michelle, Kim, Kristy, Constance, Christina, and all of the other wonderful people at Senior Matters for all their love and care.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, infant child, and her brother, W.T. Jeffers.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Center, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or Amedisys Hospice, 2166 Forest Drive, Suite 120, Columbia, SC 29204.

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.