Cephus Luke Gardner Jr., 85, passed away Oct. 28, 2017, at 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 U.S. 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 is his wife of 57 years, Faye Weeks Gardner; five daughters, Sandra Turner and husband, Eddie, of Franklin, Twyla Duke and husband, Lee, of Conway, N.C., Wendy Mears and husband, Danny, of Suffolk, Kimberly Petrasek and husband, Randy, of Franklin, and Shana Martin and husband, Grady, of Conway, N.C.; 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, N.C.; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at Hillcrest Baptist Church with the Rev. Ricky Garza and the Rev. Doug Gibson officiating. The burial will follow at Meadowbrook Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Wright Funeral Home, Franklin, and suggests that memorial donations be made to Hillcrest Baptist Church. www.wrightfuneralhome.org