Lawanna Barbara Gaskin passed away on a partly cloudy Saturday afternoon, September 11, 2021. She was 60 years old.

In the hours before her transition, loved ones lifted her up in prayer, song, and Psalm 23. Her daughter, Ladrena, held her hand.

Lawanna was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on November 13, 1960, a leap year, to Cleveland and Barbara Hinson. It was a windy, rainy Sunday. Her brother, Derrick, was 8 years old.

Lawanna graduated from Cocoa High School in 1978. As an Army specialist, she supplied soldiers with food in Fort Hood, Texas, from 1987-1991, before making Cocoa, Florida, her home. For the last two decades of her career, Lawanna was a correctional officer at the Brevard Juvenile Detention Center, where she retired.

Lawanna loved shopping, trying new foods, and music. She loved to dance and she loved to sing – out loud, without a care that she couldn’t carry a tune.

She also “loved, loved, loved to travel,” Ladrena said. “Anywhere her car would take her, she would go.” One of her favorite trips was in 2011, when she and Ladrena went to New York                         
Lawanna became a grandmother in 2013, when Julianna was born. It wasn’t uncommon to find Lawanna behind the wheel, driving to see her daughter and granddaughter. They were quite the trio.

Lawanna was a woman who wore her heart on her sleeve. She was generous and empathetic.

“She would give her last to anybody. If it were her last, she would share it with someone who had a little less,” Ladrena said.

“No one cried alone in her presence. That’s the kind of person she was.”

As Ladrena held her mother’s hand and said goodbye, Ladrena shed a tear. Lawanna did, too.

Lawanna Barbara Gaskin is survived by Ladrena Wynnette Sampson, her only child, and Julianna Cheyanne Wade, her only grandchild. She is preceded in death by her parents, Cleveland and Barbara Hinson, and her brother, Derrick Wayne Hinson. She leaves a host of family and friends to cherish her memory.