Mary Elizabeth Palmer

Mary Elizabeth (Libby) Palmer passed to Glory in the early hours of Saturday, August 30th, 2025, at her home on Balsam Lake, Wisconsin. Libby was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on March 3rd, 1928, to Henry Porter Black and Bettie Lee Black (nee Moore). 

Libby was the youngest of 9 children and grew up during the depression on a farm on the side of Little House Mountain northwest of Lexington, Virginia. She attended public schools in Lexington, graduating salutatorian, and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Madison College (now James Madison University) in Harrisonburg, VA. For two summers, she was a missionary, first with farm laborers in south Texas and then in the mining and ranching towns of NE New Mexico, where she met her future husband, Gerald (Gerry) Burton Palmer, in 1948. Libby and Gerry married the following year in Pamplin, Virginia, before returning to Wagon Mound, New Mexico, to begin family life. She contracted and survived polio when her first born (Warren) was a baby. 

Gerry and Libby were church starters for Southern Baptists. Libby taught school in Maxwell until the children began to arrive. In addition to being a full-time homemaker, Libby worked alongside Gerry in church work by playing piano, teaching Sunday School, visiting for the church, leading the Girl’s Auxiliary (GAs), and Women’s Missionary Union (WMU). After moving to Albuquerque in early 1957 and later to Atlanta, GA, Libby continued in church work while Gerry worked in Southern Baptist denominational work. Libby also taught piano to a whole generation of young people at Columbia Drive Baptist Church in Decatur, GA. She was instrumental in the start of two Hmong churches, one in Decatur, Georgia, and another in Roseville, Minnesota. She compiled and edited the first Hmong hymn book. 

When Gerry and Libby retired in 1993 to Balsam Lake, Wisconsin they continued their church work by supporting a church start in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and mission outreach services in Almena, Balsam Lake and St. Croix Falls. It was a 50-mile drive each way to Rice Lake, but Gerry and Libby always went where the Lord showed the need. Libby continued her active participation in Hope Baptist church life after Gerry passed in 2007 and was able to attend regularly until the winter of 2022. 

Libby is survived by four children: Warren Sherwood Palmer, former spouse Kathy Stinnett and child Tamara; David Forrest Palmer, wife Roberta (Pentzer) and children a) Jonathan and b) Mary Beth Fletcher, husband Eric and children Kinsley, Logan, and Kindyl; Timothy Douglas Palmer, wife Margie (Propst) and children a) Tim Jr., wife Alyssa (Ellis) and children Sarah, Amelia, Charlotte and b) Merrillee, ; and Marcia Faye Laster husband David and children a) Sharon Hulsey, husband Daniel and children Atticus and Evangeline and b) Angela Thigpen, husband Maxwell and children RosaLee, Madelyn, and Savannah.

Libby was predeceased by her brothers and sisters and their spouses: Walter (Elizabeth), Harvey (Evlyn), Coburn, Lula (Walter Pultz), Raymond (Gwen), Tom (Clyde and Ann), Dorothy “Dot” (Johnny Heizer), and Charles (Gladys). 

She was also predeceased by husband Gerald Palmer, his brothers and sisters and their spouses: Myron, Ruth (Art Mattson), Winton (Lydia), Kenneth (Betty), Howard (Elaine), Jerome (Alice), Gordon (Rosette), and Gaylie (DeWayne Paul). 

In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to 1st Hope Baptist Church-State Mission Fund; 

PO Box 497 Rice Lake, WI 54868

Graveside services are scheduled for 1pm, Saturday, September 27th at New Home Cemetery, 2228 220th Ave, Eureka Township, west of Milltown, WI. A reception will follow at the home place, 1817 Kemah Park Ct, Balsam Lake, WI.