GAINESVILLE - A memorial service will be held Thursday morning for Ned Gignilliat, a Gainesville businessman and member of a prominent Gainesville family, who died Monday. <br>
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Gignilliat was the owner/operator of Bell's Cleaners in downtown Gainesville from 1977 until 2002 - and was active in Grace Episcopal Church, the Gainesville Kiwanis Club, Boy Scouts and Habitat for Humanity. <br>
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In 1991, he participated in a 15-day historic citizen-to-citizen exchange between the State of Georgia and and Soviet Georgia along with about 300 fellow Georgians. It was the first time during such an exchange, sponsored by the Friendship Force, that average Georgians were allowed to stay in the homes of average Soviet Georgians.<br>
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A memorial service for Gignilliat, who was 60, will be held Thursday morning at 11:00 at Grace Episcopal Church. (A complete obituary can be found elsewhere on this site.)<br>
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