Biography: Gertrude Remmel Butler, of Little Rock, died in her home Saturday, September 29, 2007. She was born March 31, 1910, at 314 Broadway in Little Rock, the oldest child of Augustus Caleb Remmel and Ellen Lucy (Nell) Cates Remmel. Her father was chairman of the Republican State Committee when he died in 1920; and her mother was Republican National Committeewoman for Arkansas when she died in 1961, having served since 1928. Because of her father's untimely death leaving her mother with six children under ten years of age, Gertrude, as the oldest, assumed a parental role early in her life. Other than her parents, she was predeceased by her beloved husband Richard Colburn Butler, four brothers, Harmon Liveright Remmel II, Augustus Caleb Remmel, Jr., Pratt Cates Remmel, Roland Rowe Remmel, a sister Carrie Remmel Dickinson and two nieces, Ruth Ellen Remmel and Kitty Fuess Clement. Gertrude and friend Grainger Williams graduated from Little Rock High School in 1928 in the first graduating class from the beautiful building now housing Central High School where she served as its first female cheerleader. She attended National Park Seminary near Washington, D.C. and graduated in 1930. On returning to Little Rock she became a lifeguard at the White City pool and was elected to the advisory board of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA She took up archery, won many trophies and became a model for Ben Pearson bows and arrows. She started volunteering for the Pulaski County Chapter of the American Red Cross about 1933, became a member of the motor pool and eventually the oldest member of its board of directors and an honorary member of the Clara Barton Society. On March 7, 1936, at First Methodist Church, Little Rock, she married Richard C. Butler, an attorney whom she knew through the Epworth League. During World War II they lived in Alexandria, Va., while Dick was stationed at the National Airport. Gertrude Butler served on the Board of Lady Guardians of the Ada Thompson Memorial Home until it merged into Presbyterian Village where she led two aerobics classes every Thursday for over thirty years. For her other volunteer work there she was honored by the naming of the Gertrude Butler Lounge. She was a member of the Junior League of Little Rock and served as its president 1948-49. She was an active member of the Arkansas Arts Center, traveling each January for many years with her sister Carrie to the Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum. She was a member of the Little Rock Chapter of the Garden Club of America, serving as president 1956-58 and winning a Zone IX horticulture award in 1981 and a national award in 2005 for her partnership with Virginia Alexander in creating and caring for the Pulaski County Courthouse rose garden. Other boards she served include Goodwill Industries, the Trebing Memorial Home for Blind Women and, as a charter member, the Arkansas Field Office of the Nature Conservancy. She was a 1998 winner of the David Pryor CareLinks award for community service and was named philanthropist of the year 2002 by Arkansas Fundraising Professionals. She created GRB funds at the Arkansas Community Foundation and Jones Eye Institute. Every day of her active adult life she was thinking and doing what she could to help others. Her donations include the healing garden at Baptist Health Center, land for the Heifer International world headquarters, Butler Plaza at Hendrix College, concert sponsorships of the Little Rock Wind Symphony, the Bush-Remmel genealogy room at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, part of the new building for the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, the gazebo and benches at Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, land for the westward expansion of the YMCA of Metropolitan Little Rock and landscaping and flagpoles for Armistead Village and Wilson Court, independent living programs of Easter Seals Arkansas. She was a member of the Central Arkansas Iris Society, the Country Club of Little Rock, the Fine Arts Club, the Firehouse Hostel and Museum, the Pulaski County Historical Society and the Quapaw Quarter Association. And she was the person for whom the Gertrude Remmel Butler Child Development Center of First United Methodist Church, Little Rock, was named. She is survived by her son, Richard Colburn Butler III of Little Rock and Washington, Ark.; two sisters-in-law, Jean Purrington Remmel and husband William H. FitzSimmons of New York and Ruth Rebsamen Remmel of Little Rock; nieces Alexandra Remmel Swoope and husband Carter Of New York, Rosalyn Remmel Morgan and husband Richard of Lawton, La., Catherine Remmel Matthews, Rebecca Couch Remmel, Mary Remmel Wohlleb and husband Jim, Karen Remmel Lowry and husband Steven of Fayetteville, Nan Ellen Dickinson East and husband Jack, Marguerite Fuess Sidner and husband Bill of Marietta, Ga., Kathryn Winn Eoff of Wimberley, Tex.; nephews Harmon Lawrence Remmel, Esq. and wife Helen of New York, Pratt Cates Remmel, Jr., Raymond Roland Remmel, M.D. and wife Margarita Garcia, M.D., Haskell Lee Dickinson II and wife Peggy, Remmel Tyndall Dickinson of little Rock and Alexandria, Va., and James Buchanan Winn III of Wimberley; and many great-nephews and nieces. The funeral will be held at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 3, at First United Methodist Church, 723 Center, Little Rock, with the Rev. Michael L. Mattox and Bishop Charles N. Crutchfield. Interment will follow at Mount Holly Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Gertie's favorite charities. Arrangements by Ruebel Funeral Home, www.ruebelfuneralhome.com.