SUFFOLK — Cephus Luke Gardner Jr., 85, passed away on Oct. 28, in Southampton Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Gardner was the son of the late Cephus Luke Gardner and Mary Joyner Gardner, and was also predeceased by sisters, Ida Lee Odom and Rachel Harrell.
He was a 1949 graduate of Holland High School, a retired Coast Guard veteran, and had retired from A&P Grocery Stores after 43 years of service.
Luke was a member of Hillcrest Baptist Church and the Holy Neck Ruritan Club.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife of 57 years, Faye Weeks Gardner; five daughters, Sandra Turner and husband, Eddie, of Franklin; Twyla Duke and husband, Lee, of Conway, North Carolina; Wendy Mears and husband, Danny, of Suffolk; Kimberly Petrasek and husband, Randy, of Franklin; and Shana Martin and husband, Grady, of Conway, North Carolina; four sisters, Mary Hawes and husband, Ed, of New York; Amy Tucker of Florida; Bernice Sedberry of Portsmouth; and Brenda Dilday and husband, Joe, of Ahoskie, North Carolina; six grandchildren; and three great grandchildren. 

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, in Hillcrest Baptist Church with the Rev. Ricky Garza and the Rev. Doug Gibson officiating. The burial will follow in Meadowbrook Memorial Gardens.
The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday in Wright Funeral Home, Franklin, and suggests that memorial donations be made to Hillcrest Baptist Church.
www.wrightfuneralhome.org.