Mrs. Ellen Gambrel Callebs, 90, of Girdler, passed away Thursday morning, October 15, 2026 at the Hillcrest Health and Rehabilitation Center in Corbin after a long illness. She was born October 4, 1936 in the Spruce Pine area of Knox County, the daughter of the late Anthony Gambrel and Martha Jones Gambrel.
Ellen was the youngest and last survivor of their 13 children including Samuel Gambrel, Abbie Gail Gambrel, Willie Gambrel, Essie Gambrel Jordan, Everett Gambrel, Lincoln Gambrel, Dave Gambrel, Nannie Gambrel, John Criss Gambrel, Mary Alice Gambrel Brock, Gracie Mae Gambrel Frazier, and Amelia Jane Gambrel Root Almas. Ellen was also preceded in death by her husband, Lenvil Callebs, after 72 years of marriage.
On May 17, 1954, Ellen was united in Marriage to Lenvil Callebs in Sneedville, TN, and to this union two sons were born, Eugene Lenvil Callebs and Charles Glenn Callebs.
Early in their marriage, Lenvil and Ellen took in several family members as they came to Michigan to find work. Ellen served as President of the PTA while Gene and Charlie attended elementary school there. After coming home to Girdler in the 1960’s and as the boys got older, she made sure they got to band practice and other events. She would tell Gene to go outside to practice his trumpet and to point it toward the back hills of the farm. Being able to play the trumpet instilled a great lifelong love of music in him. She turned Charlie and Gene loose with remote controlled planes, helicopters, boats, rockets, and other vehicles where they learned to evaluate, build, improvise, and transport various critters on the pond and off into the air.
Ellen was a true Proverbs 31:10-31 woman of the Bible. She did Lenvil, her sons, and household “good all the days of her life. She looked well to the ways of her house hold and did not eat the bread of idleness.” She was known to the family for her spotless house, frequently shining furniture, woodwork and floors. She tended to huge gardens and put up and served homegrown vegetables along with her cakes, including delicious fresh apple, German Chocolate, and carrot cakes. She very often carried food to weddings and baby showers, and to Roadside Baptist Church where she was a member. She truly enjoyed the fellowship of gatherings and homecomings of the Gambrel family, the Callebs family, and the Mann Cobb family reunions, where she would always bring something good to share with family and friends.
Ellen loved to dress well but her buying trips were always restrained by her thriftiness. She made frequent runs to the Talbot’s outlets and sorted through quality pieces and got excited at the discounts. Early in their retirement, Ellen and Lenvil traveled across America and loved to tell about the beautiful trip to Nova Scotia, Alberta, and California. Lenvil built her a large picnic table from the wood they brought back from the Redwood National Park area of the California trip.
Ellen loved her extended family with her whole heart and loved to reminisce and talk about growing up with them. Ellen and Lenvil fought a brave battle together with Ellen’s long term illness.
Ellen is survived by her sons, Gene and wife, Doris, of London, Charlie and wife, Dee, of Barbourville. She leaves three grandchildren, Melanie Ann Callebs Goodin and husband, Steve, of Corbin, Andy Callebs and wife, Alexis, of St. George, UT, and Shea Collette and husband, Dakota, of Alcoa, TN, along with ten great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
Also surviving are two brothers-in-law, Leon Potter and wife, Shirley, of Barbourville and Need Potter, Jr. of Granger County, TN.
She also has many special, close nieces and nephews, including Denver, Grover, Charles Gambrel, Christine Singleton and JoAnn Mills, the Gambrel family, and dear friends to mourn her passing.
Her funeral service will be conducted in the chapel of the Knox Funeral Home Tuesday, October 20 at 1 P.M. with Rev. David Barnard officiating. She will be laid to rest in the Barbourville Cemetery.
Casket bearers will be Steve Goodin, Isaac Goodin, Sean Goodin, Dakota Collett, Jeff Potter and Tommy Peavley.
Friends may visit at the funeral home Tuesday after 12 Noon until the funeral hour.
The Callebs family would like to thank Ellen’s caregivers, including Martha Wilson of Barbourville, and the kind staffs from Hillcrest including Nurse Thelma, and the Bluegrass Care Navigators Hospice team, especially Primary Caregiver Jewell, Nurse Faye, and Chaplain Kristen.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s research hospital in her memory at https://www.stjude.org/give.html .
Arrangements are under the direction of the Knox Funeral Home.