Ronnie Gibson is very careful with his spelling, for his words will probably be read for hundreds of years.

What he writes is quite literally engraved in stone.

He’s a stonecutter. He makes tombstones.

Gibson began learning the trade when he was about 10 years old, working with his father in Natchez, helping him in the summers and after school.

“I took an interest in it,” he said, “and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Making tombstones, or grave markers, has changed a lot in recent years, and though he still does some work by hand, his basic tool is the computer, which is much faster, and he can change the size of the design with ease.

Though marble was once the main material used, Gibson now makes those monuments by special order. Granite is the primary material, and though your choice used to be various shades of gray, Gibson can now get the stone in blue, black or brown, from Norway, Africa or China, and from Georgia and other states. Large metal markers, which were popular for a time in the early 1900s and looked like stone, are a thing of the past, he said. You’ll find them in cemeteries such as Wintergreen in Port Gibson and Union Church in Jefferson County.

Another material he occasionally uses is natural rock, and though graves many years ago were marked with boulders or slabs of rock, there were no inscriptions on them. Technology has changed that, and Gibson can inscribe almost any flat surface.

Some inscriptions are routine, such as name, dates of birth and death, and often a statement about the deceased or perhaps a verse of scripture.

Gibson has had a few unusual requests, the most unique being one shaped like a 5-foot-high pyramid with a different design on each side.

He has also made some that have a touch of humor. One man who designed his own had a scene etched on it of a man sitting on the bank of a stream fishing, and by his side was a bottle of whiskey. The inscription said, “He lived and died and bought his own booze.”

“That’s what he enjoyed,” Gibson said, “so that’s what is on his stone. Another one says that the subject paid his own way through life, including the cost of the tombstone.”

When Gibson graduated from high school in Natchez, he worked for a while in historic restoration, then went to work for Wendy’s, which transferred him to Vicksburg in 1987. He continued part-time stone cutting and, after more than 11 years in the restaurant business, decided to go into business on his own full time. He and his wife, Linda, started Gibson Monuments in their home on Washington Street, then bought the place next door and expanded the operation. It was a small company, but it grew. After 15 years, they moved to Highway 61 south five years ago.

Gibson now has three full-time employees, and his wife takes care of most of the office work. Their three daughters, ages 16, 11 and 10, are like their father when he was a youth: They’re interested in the work, so they help him during the summer.

He’s expanding the business to include a showroom for displaying monuments and for another line of work — granite benches, tables, chairs, planters, birdbaths and patios.

They last, he said, and the granite is cool and comfortable. He can etch scenes in glass and granite, and in the latter he can create scenes in full color.

While he spends most of his time making new markers, he can usually repair broken ones, sometimes using pins but more often with epoxies, such as F-26. If he makes a mistake, it’s easier to just start over. Corrections can be made on old stones, but there is usually a blemish — for all to see forever. For cleaning stones, he sprays them with Clorox, then washes off the excess with water. If you don’t, he said, the marble will sometimes take on a yellowish tint.

Gibson learned his trade “strictly through home training,” though he said there are seminars and classes one can take at several schools. He has no idea how many stones he has made, but speculates they would number in the thousands.

He’s just 53, yet he has 35 years of experience — if you count the years he spent in the trade as a child and a youth.

He knows his trade and talent will always be in demand, that he will always have customers, for one man had him inscribe on his stone an epitaph that will apply to all mankind: “I had a feeling it was going to turn out like this.”

Gordon Cotton is an author and historian who lives in Vicksburg.