Gene Buck

Gene Anne (Peck) Buck Nov 21, 1938 - January 25, 2023.

Please join us to celebrate the life of Gene Anne Buck on February 25th at 11:00am at the West Harpeth Funeral Home on 6962 Charlotte Pike, Nashville TN 37209. Reception to follow at the home of Dan and Fabiola Buck 875 Rodney Drive, Nashville TN 37205.  Gene, age 84, passed away on January 25, 2023.

Friends and family will gather to celebrate the life of a loving and creative woman who mothered and mentored many beyond her immediate family, passing on her love of gardening, cooking, and painting to her children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, and caregivers.  She earned several loving nicknames over her lifetime including, “Sparky,” for her dubious electrical skills helping one of her children fix up and move into their first home. She is fondly remembered for riding shotgun on numerous family and gal pal adventures across the country.  Gene Anne survived both childhood polio and the 2019-2021 pandemic. She loved Broadway musicals, the Kansas City Chiefs, well written novels, and word puzzles.  Even in her last days she was an optimist, a dreamer, an artist, a spiritualist, and a loving, kind soul. She touched more lives than she knew.

She is survived by three adult children: Cynthia Anne Howell (David) of Gilbert, AZ, Robin Lynn Buck of Carbondale, IL, and Daniel Andrew Buck (Fabiola) of Nashville TN.  Gene Anne doted on her seven grandchildren: Aaron, Hannah, Ryan, and Katie Bushur; Nathan Howell; and Paloma and Bennett Buck.  And she is survived by her beloved dog, Lulu, lovingly cared for now by Sharon Gibbs.

Later this year the family will host a separate memorial service at the Oak Grove, MO cemetery where her ashes will be buried alongside her parents James Eugene and Hannah Belle (Sears) Peck.   An only child, Gene Anne was close to her Missouri cousins who survive her:  Gary Sears, Marybelle (Sears) Meeker, and Judith (Sears) Warner.

Gene Anne was raised in Oak Grove, MO, on 12th street and lived next door to her grandparents.  Her grandfather was the local veterinarian for Jackson County.  She attended the local public school there through eighth grade, and was valedictorian of her class.  She attended high school in Stuttgart, Germany, acting in plays and musicals, and graduating in 1955.  (She was happy to attend the Stuttgart Stallions 50th class reunion in 2005 with many of her classmates.)  Following high school, she returned to Missouri and enrolled in the University of Missouri at Columbia where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Speech.  In 1961, while attending graduate school for her masters in Speech Pathology, she met and married Terence Dunford Buck.  The couple relocated to Fort Benning, GA, where their first child was born.  A year later they moved to Fort Hood, Texas where their second child was born in 1963.  Shortly after that, the growing family moved to East Lansing, MI where they purchased their first home, and their third child was born in 1967.  In 1968 the young family moved to Carbondale, IL.  In the early seventies Gene Anne began what was to become a nearly 35-year career in higher education, beginning as a financial aid officer at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  She cherished the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of countless young people trying to make a better life for themselves.

In 1979, the couple divorced, and a few years later she moved to Cape Girardeau, MO where she worked at the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Southeast Missouri University.  While at SEMO, Gene Anne hosted Japanese exchange students attending the school.  After several years, Gene Anne moved closer to her mother, Hannah Belle, accepting the Director of Financial Aid position with the private Jesuit college, Rockhurst, and living in nearby Independence, MO.  Eventually she retuned to Oak Grove and 12th street where she concluded her career and lived across the street from her mother, assisting in her care until Hannah Belle’s death in 2005.  Gene Anne then took up residence in Lansing, NC to be near family.  During her many years in the NC mountains, she joined Jefferson United Methodist church, became a Stephens Minister and a regular volunteer at Ashe Memorial Hospital.  With the family’s relocation in 2012, she moved again to Nashville, TN to be near her youngest grandchildren.

With the lingering complications of childhood polio impacting her health in later years, she relied on a series of loving caregivers for medical support and companionship.  Gene Anne expanded her family circle once again to include several ‘sisters of the heart’ and her dear neighbor, Betty Evers. The family is tremendously grateful for all the love and kindness shown by numerous individuals to improve her quality of life and share in her story.

For Livestream, please click on the following link 10 min. prior to service time.

https://view.oneroomstreaming.com/index.php?data=MTY3NzE5MzQ5MDIzNzYzNyZvbmVyb29tLWFkbWluJmNvcHlfbGluaw==