~ IN MEMORY ~
Sylvia Hodnett Gex, former stewardess & widow
of DL Capt. Robert Gex
September 14, 1933 ~ October 27, 2025
….she became a Stewardess working for Delta
Airlines in 1957…. loved her years of flying. Yet those were to change as she
fell hopelessly in love with a dashing flyboy named Robert Brooking Gex III who
also worked at Delta…………
Captain Gex (1920-1978) joined Delta Air Lines
12-12-1949 and was based Atlanta.
PCN memorial site
https://www.rememberobits.com/obituaries/valley-point-funeral-home/sylvia-hodnett-gex-obituary
Obituary For Sylvia Hodnett Gex
Monday evening, Oct 27, 2025, after a challenging
recovery from a recent surgery, Sylvia Hodnett Gex passed away after 92 years
traveling around the sun, picked up stakes on the rock we call earth and moved
into her Heavenly Father’s house. We have no doubt that her arrival was met
with welcoming hugs of family and loved ones already in residence and of course
our Lord & Savior!
Sylvia’s legacy is carried forward by her three
most precious loves, her three sons – Jack, Brook and Danny Gex. Jack and wife
Nancy Jo and their blended family, Jack’s children Bobby and wife Viktoria Gex,
Ben and wife Darby Gex, and Hannah Gex. As well as Nancy Jo’s children Sara
(Goldie) and husband Matt Lee, Pam Goldie, and Mark and Samantha Goldie.
Brook’s children Casey, Julia and Eileen Gex. And Danny and wife Michelle
(Lamy) Gex and their four daughters Emily, Elizabeth, Abigail and Caroline Gex.
Sister, Linda Hodnett Wright. She was also promoted to Great Grandmother by
Carson Gex (Ben & Darby), by Savana and Barret Lee (Matt & Sara), by
Lydia Adams (Pam Goldie) and most recently by Bonnie Goldie (Mark &
Samantha).
And her other family, ‘The Girls’; her dearest of
girlfriends, the girls of the West Point High School class of 1952.
Sylvia Hodnett Gex, was born Sylvia Ann Fowler on
Sep 14, 1933, in Gadsden, Alabama to Harold and Ona Fowler. She spent her first
7 years living on a farm outside of Centre, Alabama playing in the family
General Store, picking cotton by hand on the land farmed and share cropped and
seeing the family run the local cotton gin. She had fond memories of helping
her father around the farm with tools, falling in a creek when she slipped off
a log and helping her mother sort all the drawers full of buttons in the general
store. However, fate decided she was to grow up in a different location. In the
summer of 1940, in a driving rainstorm the family was involved in a tragic auto
accident. Her 3-month-old baby sister, Linda Fowler (Aunt Linda), was rescued
having been safely thrown free of the accident. Unfortunately, her mother was
killed in the wreck and her father died a few days later in the hospital. Over
the next few months forces beyond explanation were working to bring her and her
sister to a new home. In September of 1940 mom became Sylvia Ann Hodnett and
Linda Hodnett when they were adopted by a loving Christian couple, Jack and
Vivian Hodnett of West Point, Georgia.
Belle/Georgia Peach, and lifelong friend of her 28
high school classmates. She grew up in the First United Methodist Church of
West Point and loved her mom and dad immensely. She attended West Point High
School where she was a Cheer Leader for two years. The family vacationed in
Daytona Beach, Florida and for many summers Sylvia attended Camp Dixie for
Girls in North Georgia. Upon high school graduation in 1952 she continued her
love of adventures by hopping a train and traveling halfway across the country attending
Stevens College in Columbia, Missouri. And if traveling across country for two
years of college was not enough or not an indicator, a few years after
graduation from Stevens College in 1954 she became a Stewardess working for
Delta Airlines in 1957.
During her years with Delta, she traveled! She
vacationed with her sister staying in Jamaica and then in Havana, Cuba (before
things went sideways!). She traveled to Spain and experienced the bullfights.
She journeyed across the South flying in a DC-3 – asking with her Southern
charm: ‘Coffee or Tea’? They even landed at the wrong airport and had to lean
out the window of the plane and ask ‘Where are we?’ (true story)! She was based
in New Orleans for several years living on Bourbon Street, seeing French Quarter
history and enjoying great Cajun food! While at Delta Airlines she volunteered,
trained and was selected as a one of Delta Airlines’ first “Jet Age” flight
attendants. Mom was one of 12 girls to fly the inaugural Atlanta, Miami,
Chicago routes on the new DC-8 jets. They took the girls to New York to be
fitted with new uniforms designed by Hollywood and Academy Award winning
costume designer, Edith Head. Mom loved her years of flying. Yet those were to
change as she fell hopelessly in love with a dashing flyboy named Robert
Brooking Gex III who also worked at Delta.
Sylvia and Bob were married in August of 1962.
They had three children: Hardy Jackson Hodnett Gex (63), Lewis Brooking Kempner
Gex (65) and Robert William Daniel Gex (67). The years of living at 319 Hickory
Post Lane were for the most part idyllic and small town through the 1960’s and
1970’s. There were cocktail dinner parties, trips to New Orleans with the
neighbors, summer trips to the grand parents in Georgia, and a million kids
birthday parties, homemade ice cream, and years of sporting events where she
earned the nickname, Mama Gex. In the summer of 1978, she lost the love of her
life as Bob Gex passed away. Summoning courage she charged ahead continuing the
task of raising her three boys through school and off to graduation from
college. Many childhood friends, Spartan classmates and teammates, and a group
of Aggie friends (Bob’s alma mater) would always be a part of their lives.
In 1995 Sylvia earned her greatest promotion and
took on her most favorite of titles: Grammy. Over the next 10 years she was
blessed with 10 grandchildren. She would dote, spoil, comfort, entertain, did I
say spoil, and love without question or limits those 10 grand kids – 3 boys and
7 girls until this very day. The spoiling rotten time was most evident around
the numerous birthdays throughout the year. With cakes, famous homemade peach
ice cream – only made with Georgia Peaches – because they were better and she
was one – and the birthday shopping trip with Grammy (the girls loved the
shopping day with Grammy)! The greatest meal, of historic proportion in feast
and memories was always Thanksgiving Dinner. But the grandest display of family
love and the Spirit of Christmas morning gathering of the grandkids with Grammy
to open presents.
This is but a snap shot of her legacy. The hope is
that the Moma Gex and Grammy love that was, and still is, leaps out from these
words and that just at least a little goes home with the reader. Welcome to the
family.
Funeral services in Houston will be held at
Dettling Funeral Home 14094 Memorial Drive Houston, TX 77079 Thursday November
6, 2025, with visitation from 5:00PM to 8:00PM with a blessing and eulogies at
7:00PM.
There will be additional services at Valley-Point
Funeral Home, 1011 N Lanier Ave. Lanett, AL 36863 Thursday November 20, 2025,
with visitation from 11:00AM to 1:00PM with burial immediately following in
Marseilles Cemetery 400-498 E 12th St, West Point, GA 31833.
Donations can be made to the American Heart
association or MD Anderson. Or – to the charity of your choice in her honor.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85651537/robert-brooking-gex
Robert Brooking Gex III
Birth 22
May 1920 Kirksville, Missouri
Death 16
Jul 1978 (aged 58) Houston, Texas
Burial Marseilles
Cemetery, West Point, Georgia
