Joan Barbara "JB" Urbach Brantley

Joan Barbara "JB" Urbach Brantley passed on Saturday, May 30, 2020 in Milton Ga. She was born on August 19, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois to Walter Urbach and Laura Jackson Urbach. JB grew up as a child of an Air Force Colonel and traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe after World War II with her family. JB attended college at C.W. Post in Long Island, New York and later Wesleyan in Macon, Georgia. It was in Macon JB met Ron Wilbanks Jr. and they married in 1958. JB and Ron had two children, Cheryl Lynne Wilbanks and Ronald Scott Wilbanks. JB again traveled the United States and Europe as a military spouse. JB and Ron divorced in 1976 and JB settled in Richardson, Texas.

JB held many different professional positions during her 30-year work career before retiring in 2000. While in Dallas she became an avid Cowboys fan and even worked on their first web page. She had a wonderful circle of friends there and was known for always lending a helping hand or words of encouragement to those that needed it. She enjoyed painting, football and decorating. In her previous marriage she was President and member of the Officer's Wife Club, participating in numerous events to support our troops during Vietnam and after. In 1998 JB reconnected with an old friend, Ernie Brantley, Cheri's godfather. After several phone calls they met for a visit and thus began a story-book romance that lasts to this day. JB and Ernie moved from Texas and settled in Guntersville, Alabama moving to a home overlooking Lake Guntersville.

In 2012, JB and Ernie relocated for a final time to Georgia to be near and have the support of their children, which included Ernie's children, Ethelyn (Rusty) Geiger and Kevin Brantley, and her son Scott (Christine) Wilbanks.

JB loved social activities and was very involved in the Ladies Auxiliary of the VFW in Guntersville as well as the Ladies Auxiliary of the "Forty and Eight" - an honor society of American veterans and service members dedicated to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, to promote the well-being of veterans, their widows, widowers and orphans, and to actively participated in selected charitable endeavors, which include programs that promote child welfare and nurses training.

JB will be truly missed; her generosity, her laugh and always knowing when a hug and kind word were needed.

JB is preceded in death by her parents, Colonel Walter and Laura Urbach, her brother Colonel Walter Urbach, Jr. her grandson David Wood and her niece Donna Urbach.

JB is survived by her husband, her children and step-children, her grandchildren, Michelle Soto, Zachary Grubbs, Ryan Grubbs, Camryn Geiger, Ethan Wilbanks and great-grandchildren, Carter Erisman Wood and Carter Soto.

A private service is being held on Tuesday June 2, 2020. In lieu of flowers or other gifts the family appreciates honorariums be made in her name to Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory, 210 Ingram Ave, Cumming, GA 30040 is in charge of arrangements.