KWTX salutes Aunt Rosie

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - She is a mother of three and the auntie of many, many more.

Rosie Lee Gipson, 79, owner of Aunt Rosie’s Day Care in Mexia has been taking care of kids, other than her own, for about 45 years.

They range from 6-weeks-old to age 12.

For some, it could be a tiresome job.

For Gipson, it is a passion project to make sure the kids in her community are well cared for.

“Getting to love the babies, love and spoil. That is the part I really like because I love kids. I love babies.” she said.

Gipson sings, teaches, comforts, and inspires her kiddos.

The Limestone County native began this venture after deciding to leave her job at the Mexia State School to stay home and take care of her youngest son, Jeff, who was battling a physical ailment.

She said, he was born a normal, healthy baby.

Then months afterwards, developed a debilitating hip issue. He had to wear a cast.

Later, though she wanted to have more children, Gipson became ill herself. She said, a blood clot traveled through her heart and lungs.

“After that, the doctor told me I couldn’t have any more kids. So, I said I don’t want my baby to grow up by himself. (He was at least 6 years younger than his older siblings.) So that’s when I decided to start keeping kids, so he would have playmates.”

From there she started small, keeping a few kids, then more in a group home setting, then more in a daycare setting.

She even moved from a smaller location to a larger one to accommodate the future increase in kids.

And getting started wasn’t easy. Just 11 days in, she faced getting shut down and the children relocated because the licensing inspector said she needed a fence.

“She had my license that she had taken off the wall. And I was sitting there crying.”

Then her husband, Chester, stepped in and fixed that situation.

Against the odds, the short timeline of when it had to be done, which was in a few days, and the rainy forecast, he put that fence up and all was well.

Business was good. The facility was full. Rosie is licensed to care for 181 children, kids that she thinks of as her own.

Then tragedy struck.

Her daughter Shelia was killed in a car accident just 2 miles from the day care on Highway 84.

She shut down for a week, and in the midst of losing her, she knew she had to get back to her other babies at the center.

Ladies from the community came in for free to help.

“They comfort me because, at that time, I fixed hot meals for them (the kids.) As they helped take care of the kids, I did most of the cooking?”

She said that helped take her mind off the grief.

Then later, there was more misfortune.

Jeff, the son with the physical ailment who was once in a hip cast, then recovered and went on to play basketball for Baylor University passed away suddenly passed away.

At the time he worked for Woodforest National Bank.

Gipson said, “That was a blow to everybody because he was well liked.”

She took just a little time off to grieve, and falling back on her commitment to the community and her families, knew she again had to get back to the center.

“I know the parents needed me. I know the community needed me. At that time, we had quite a few kids and it would put the parents in a strain, pressure on them, to try to find somebody else to keep them while we grieve. So, I had to hurry back. I was needed.”

Then in 2023, her husband went to be with the Lord.

When asked how she can go through such loss and still think of others, Gipson said her faith gets her through.

“I put all my trust in God.”

Gipson tells News 10 she has cared for three generations of children from the same families. And it’s a blessing to teach them.

At Aunt Rosie’s the children learn everything from reading, writing, and arithmetic, of course on their level.

However, she mentioned when she ran one program, its regulators said the kids learned too much.

“They were looking at how much the kids were learning, and they said I was teaching them too much because when they got to school, they were bored, they knew their ABC’s. They knew their vowels. They knew how to spell right, and I just had them ready for all of that.

The kids also learn about science and gardening.

The older kids will soon learn a lesson in banking.

Gipson said, the center is in the process of creating a bank.

In one of the corners of the facility is a space being designed to look like the lobby of a bank.

This is where students will learn how to save money.

They’ve been given cards where they will collect quarters. Aunt Rosie plans to give them their first dollar.

Once they fill out the card, they can take it to an actual bank in town to open an account, with the help of their parents.

It’s an important lesson the goes well beyond the classroom.

“Because I think kids need to learn how to save. This world is moving so fast now. They need to capture how to save their money, how to survive you know.” She said.

It’s evident Aunt Rosie has a passion for caring for children.

“You can look at me as a mom and I would want somebody that I could trust that my babies would be taken care of and loved.”

She said she has raised children who have gone on to be professionals, athletes, bankers, teachers, public safety workers.

In fact, her remaining son, Gary, served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He now works for Fairfield ISD’s Police Department.

He also pops into the day care center to help with the kids alongside other family members who work there.

Aunt Rosie said it feels good to be trusted with a parent’s most precious possession.

Aunt Rosie turns 80 in July and apparently is not quite ready to kick up her fee in retirement.

“I thought about selling but then it just burdens me. I don’t even want to think about that because I say, ‘Who’s going to see after the babies because right now?”

Business owner, caregiver, and mom, Aunt Rosie Gipson is one of the many reasons KWTX Salutes Black History Month.

Copyright 2025 KWTX. All rights reserved.