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Gerald Leslie Sykes Birth: 14 Jul 1935 - Mercer County, West Virginia - Death: 29 Aug 2012 - Lincolnton, Lincoln County, North Carolina. Gerald Leslie Sykes was the son of Herman Leslie Sykes and Eliza Clemence Artrip Sykes of Bluefield, W. Va.

Gerold was a 1954 graduate of Bramwell High School. He married his high school sweet heart, Jean Carol Tabor, BHS Class '55. They married the day after Christmas 1956 at Jean’s hometown church, Elizabeth Bowen Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in Bramwell. This church was a significant part of the lives of Jean and her family, all the way back to her great-grandfather, Henry Harrison Tabor, who with his sons and grandsons, helped build the church from the timber from his sawmill. The first Sunday-school service for the church was actually held at his sawmill shed in 1883; the current church held its first service in 1904.

In the spring of 1979, Gerald and Jean moved to Roswell, Ga., when he was transferred with Singer Furniture to Atlanta to assume his new position as vice president for the Furniture Division. Gerald and Jean moved to Lincolnton, N.C., in the spring of 2003.

Avid travelers throughout their lives, they thrived at being on the move, managing to get to the Bahamas, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and criss-crossing the United States. Jean particularly was fond of the year they spent in Seal Beach, Calif., when Gerald worked with Costco after leaving Singer in the mid-1980s.