Emma Ruth Settles Gilchrist

Mrs Emma Ruth Settles Gilchrist

Plum Branch, SC: Mrs. Emma Ruth Gilchrist, 81, transitioned from this life into eternal rest, Friday, August 4, 2023.  A resident of Plum Branch, South Carolina, Emma was born on March 15, 1942 to the late Jessie Horace Settles and the late Katie Morgan Settles.

Emma married the love her life, the late William Gilchrist.  This union of over 55 years was blessed with three daughters, Jennifer, Karen, and Nadine.  Emma enjoyed welcoming friends and family to her home in which she was always a gracious host.  She was a wonderful cook who enjoyed feeding family, friends, co-workers, and church members with the most decadent cuisines.  Her biscuits, pies, and macaroni & cheese were three of her most requested menu items. As the only girl of six children, she often times served as a second mother to her younger brothers; Joseph, John, Ernest, and Thomas.  Her nieces and nephews have numerous fond memories of their time at Aunt Emma and Uncle Will’s house during the summer. 

She was a 1959 graduate of Edgefield County Colored School (currently W.E. Parker Elementary School).  Emma was a faithful employee of Monsanto (Solutia - Ascend) for over thirty years until her retirement. After her retirement Emma enjoyed traveling with family, spending time with her grandchildren, and caring for her mother Katie. One of her proudest moments was attending her granddaughter Paige’s graduation from the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.

In addition to her late parents and husband, Emma is preceded in death by two brothers, James Otis and Joseph Settles; a special niece/daughter Angela Faye Gilchrist and nephew Thomas Corbett Settles.

Those left to cherish her memory include her loving and devoted daughters,  Jennifer L. Hill and Karen Moton of Greenwood, SC, and Nadine Gilchrist of the home; four beloved grandchildren, Ghatari Cunningham, Javarius Hill, Brillyance (Quentin) Ramsey and Kaylon McGraw, eight great-grandchildren; three brothers, John L. (Annette) Settles, McCormick, SC, Apostle E. Pressley Settles, Washington, DC and Thomas C. Settles, Atlanta, GA; brother-in-law, Eddie (Arleen) Gilchrist of Plum Branch, SC; beloved niece, Barbara Gilchrist Sanders (Peggy) and special sisters, Julia Mae Gilchrist and Annie Neely both of Plum Branch, SC, Sandra Stanley Perkins of Gurnee, IL, Sylvia Bell of McCormick, SC, Rae Clifton, Atlanta, GA and Willie Burroughs of New Haven, CT; nieces, nephews, other close relatives, and sorrowing friends.

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