February 9th, 2011
Giberson subject of new 'Voices of Hays County'

Longtime Hays County resident Mary Giberson shares tales about her life in the latest “Voices of Hays County” oral history video.

STAFF REPORT

Mary Giberson, co-author of People and Places In and Around Historic Buda, is the subject of the 11th Hays County Historical Commission (HCHC) “Voices of Hays County” video.

The newest in the oral history videos produced by HCHC, it will be screened at 2 p.m. Feb. 20 at Buda City Hall, 121 Main Street. The event is free and open to the public.

Giberson was born and raised in West Virginia and moved to Austin in 1946. She attended the University of Texas, where she majored in studio art and also met her husband, Jack, a law student. After they were married, the couple moved to Buda.

Giberson talks to HCHC’s project chairman, Bonnie Eissler, in the video about Buda in the early 1950s. She also talks about Buda’s transition from a rural farm community to one with growing subdivisions and commercial businesses.

Jack Giberson and his family owned and operated at dairy and creamery west of their home from 1942 until the early 1950s. The dairy had two trucks that delivered bottled milk to Austin stores. The barn, creamery and silo are still standing.

Mary Giberson taught art classes at the Hays CISD for 16 years and was a volunteer docent at UT’s Huntington Art Gallery for 12 years. Jack Giberson worked for the state’s General Land Office for 41 years. He passed away in 2007. The couple had four children, Robert, Richard, Marianne and John. Giberson has eleven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A member of HCHC, Giberson shares the profits from the sale of her book with the Stagecoach House, Onion Creek Post Office and the Buda Public Library.

Giberson’s book, as well as a DVD of the oral history, will be available for sale at the screening.

The “Voices of Hays County” is an ongoing project of HCHC. The videographer for the series is Richard Kidd.  Robert Frizzel is the technical assistant.