Martha Taylor Gibson

ALBANY- After a century plus of singing, gardening, oil painting, silversmithing, quilting, and Chinese painting, Martha Taylor Gibson, wife, mother, and fierce Democrat, died in her sleep on November 9, 2025, just shy of her 103rd birthday. Born in Richmond, IN, on March 13, 1923, she exhibited artistic talent early. She drew dresses for paper dolls, painted with oils at 12 using a paint set bought by her father. Fifty-cent art lessons (Depression splurge!) followed and led to an art major at U Cincinnati. In 1943, Martha transferred to Bennington College, VT, majoring in art. There she produced a book of wood etchings of the Bennington campus for her senior thesis that the College later printed into notecards for sale.
During winter months of World War II, Bennington was closed and Martha returned to Richmond to work at the Perfect Circle Piston Ring Company gauging airplane piston rings. While at Bennington, she met the love of her life, Edward Gibson, a friend of her brother Frank. Ed accelerated studies so he could enlist, and by 1944, he was navigating bombing raids in Europe for the Army Air Corps. They reconnected in Boston in 1945 where Martha worked for an interior designer, and Ed briefly studied at Harvard.
They married at his parents’ home in Glenmont, NY, in August 1946, and soon settled in the Albany area. While they raised their two daughters, Martha kept painting, taking and giving art classes, and working at the Albany Institute of History and Art. She excelled in many media – oils, silver, upholstery, quilting, fabric block printing, collage, and indoor wall murals. As a musician, she sang with and served as president of the Capitol Hill Choral Society, designed their posters, and sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Eugene Ormandy and the
Philadelphia Orchestra at the grand opening of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. She was also renown for her impersonation of Marlene Dietrich singing “Lili Marlene” in German.
Ed and Martha traveled throughout the US and Europe, and were avid walkers and bikers. In 1992, they published Loops, Strings, and Balloons: 16 Walks on Country Roads in Columbia County. Ed described the walks, and Martha illustrated. They donated proceeds to the New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy which took over publication.
Martha often said had she not gone to Bennington, “I never would have had the guts to do what I did. Frank encouraged me to get out of Richmond. If it weren’t for him, my obit would be in the Richmond Palladium instead of Albany’s Times Union!”
Martha was predeceased by her husband Ed and is survived by her daughters Ann Gibson (Annie Cheatham) of Conway, MA, Sarah Gibson (Steven Halpern) of Cambridge, MA, and numerous nieces and nephews. The family is grateful to the staff at Daughters of Sarah Nursing Center who cared for Martha for the last two months of her life, and especially to Dorothy Roohan, Martha’s beloved caretaker for many years before her death.
An informal memorial gathering will be held on Friday, December 12, 2025 from 1-3PM, at the Beverwyck Retirement Center, 40 Autumn Drive, Slingerlands NY. Memorial gifts may be made to New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and American Friends Service Committee. Online condolences may be offered at danielkeenanfuneralhome.com