Homer Franklin Gamble

KINGSTREE - Homer Franklin Gamble, M.D., a charismatic physician who practiced in his hometown of Kingstree and later in Florence, died Friday, October 28, 2011. A memorial service conducted by the Rev. Frank P. Seignious III, will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, 411 Academy Street, in Kingstree, SC. The family will receive visitors at the church at 3 o'clock, an hour before the service. Arrangements are being handled by Williamsburg Funeral Home of Kingstree.

The son of the late Thomas Duncan Gamble and Chelsie Russell Gamble, Homer was born October 9, 1948, in Kingstree. He was a graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, and the Medical University of South Carolina in 1973 and completed a residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans before returning to Kingstree to open his first practice in family medicine. Homer practiced in Kingstree for a long time, then moved to Florence to became the medical director of the Pee Dee Mental Retardation Center. Later he was invited to join the McLeod Hospital group and worked in Darlington. He volunteered regularly at a free health clinic and an AIDS center. He learned trauma care so he could work in the emergency rooms in Sumter, Bishopville, Darlington, Chesterfield, and other small towns in the Pee Dee. Homer was the former mayor of Kingstree and served as chairman of the S.C. Water Resources Commission.

Homer is survived by his two children, his daughter, Flora Coker Gamble Powell and her husband, Alexander Bert Powell, of Roswell, GA, and his son, Thomas Franklin Gamble of Spartanburg, SC, and their mother, Sarah Berry Gamble, also of Spartanburg. He is also survived by his sister, Chelsie Anne Gamble Thompson and her husband, Ellison, of Kingstree, and his nephew, John Thomas Thompson of Mount Pleasant, and also his godson, Joseph Morgan Hunt Alsbrook of Charleston. The family wishes to thank Homer's devoted caregiver, Desmond Kimbrough of Charleston.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the American Heart Association, 1101 Northchase Parkway, Suite 1, Marietta, GA 30067 or Williamsburg Regional Hospital Foundation at Post Office Box 568, Kingstree, SC, 29556.

Online condolences may be sent to the family in the obituaries section of www.WilliamsburgFuneralHome.com.