J. C. Gilbert - Gilbert in Retirement

Gilbert in Retirement

Gilbert is twice widowed. His first wife Barbara was one of the few women whose husband ("Sonny" Gilbert), father (W.S. Peck, Sr.) and brother (W. S. Peck, Jr.) were all Louisiana state lawmakers, but not simultaneously. Peck, Sr., served from 1920 to 1928, and Peck, Jr., held the position from 1956 to 1964. In addition, Dr. Henry John Peck (1803–1881), the grandfather of W. S. Peck, Sr., and a plantation owner in Sicily Island, served in the Louisiana Senate for two terms and in the Louisiana House for one term prior to the American Civil War, according to Peck-Gilbert family records. Louisiana state records before the Civil War are too fragmentary to confirm the years of Henry John Peck's tenure.

The Pecks and Gilberts are entombed at Highland Park Mausoleum in Sicily Island. After Barbara's death, "Sonny" Gilbert married the former Delmar Fulmer (1937–1999) of Baton Rouge.

Gilbert has two children, Barbara Peck Gilbert Haigh (born 1948), an English instructor at Copiah-Lincoln Community College Natchez, Mississippi, Campus, and J.C. Gilbert, III (born 1951), a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Lansing, is professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Gilbert is a regular donor to the LSU Foundation. He is a member of Rotary International, the American Legion, Farm Bureau, and the Masonic lodge. He is a former president of the National Wild Turkey Federation. He is a former Sunday school superintendent of First United Methodist Church in Sicily Island.