Eloise Joan Vibert

Eloise Joan Vibert, or “Ellie”, age 92, passed away on October 27th, 2025, in Suwanee, GA. A private internment service will be held at the Memorial Garden at University Presbyterian Church, Chapel Hill, NC. She will be interred next to her husband of 37 years, Donald Edward Vibert.

She was born in a small farmhouse in Kahoka, MO on October 11th, 1933. She was the youngest daughter of Peter Frederick Blum, and Gladys Mayfield Blum. She attended Kahoka High School and graduated in 1951. She was the first member of her family to attend college, earning a BA in Music at Culver Stockton College, in Canton, MO. Ellie loved to sing, and she took advantage of any opportunity to show off her wonderful soprano voice.

It was that love of music that led her to board a train in tiny Medill, MO to travel to Chicago, IL to sing at a friend’s wedding. While there, she took a job as a typist at The Home Insurance Company, where she captured the eye of a young man forging his own path in the business world. The two fell in love, and on a cold February 16th, 1957, Eloise Blum married Donald Vibert in a lovely ceremony in a chapel on the campus of The University of Illinois.

Ellie’s love of music blossomed into singing in every choir in every church Ellie and Don attended. If there was a choral group forming, Ellie would join. With her choral group The Wesley Singers, she traveled to Europe to perform, even getting to sing in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ellie and Don were fond of classical music, taking in concerts from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Symphony Hall in Atlanta, and many concert halls in between.

After Don passed away in February 1995, Ellie eventually moved to the small mountain town of Brevard, NC. The town was small and scenic, but it had the world-renowned Brevard Music Center, home to the famous summer classical music festival to which Ellie had season tickets for years. If the local college symphony was playing, Ellie was there taking it in. An avid gardener, she volunteered her green thumb to the gardening committee at the Music Center. In her home church of St. Philips Episcopal, she sang in the choir and played handbells. She also loved to play the piano. She had warm, loving memories of her time at St. Philips, and enjoyed frequent return visits after her move to Suwanee, GA.

Ellie is survived by her son’s Steve Vibert (Julie) of Suwanee, GA; son Tom Vibert of Greensboro, NC, one brother Wayne Blum (Dixie) of Kahoka, MO, two grandchildren Ryan Vibert of Suwanee, GA, and Katie Bailey (Garrison) of Marietta, GA, a future great-grandson, and several in-laws, nieces and nephews.

She was proceeded in death by her husband Donald Vibert, her parents Pete and Gladys Blum, a brother Frederick, her sister Laneta Gares, brother-in-law Hilbert Gares, sister-in-law Gwyn Blum, and five nephews.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the scholarship fund at The Brevard Music Center, 349 Adante Lane, Brevard, NC 28712.