Born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, Gilmer was the son of W. F. and Emma Prather Gilmer.
Dixie Chicks | Winn-Dixie | Dixie Dregs | Dixie Carter | Gilmer | Dixie Dean | Dixie | The Dixie Cups | Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport | George Rockingham Gilmer | Dixie (song) | The Dixie Hummingbirds | The Dixie Bee-Liners | Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing | The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down | The Dixie Nightingales | Gilmer County, Georgia | Dixie Mission | Dixie Gilmer | Dixie Chicks' | W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings | Winn-Dixie (supermarket) | What's New with Phil & Dixie | The Dixie Fryer | Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody | Radio Free Dixie | Off the Record (Dixie Dregs album) | Mark Dixie | James 'Dixie' Deans | Heart of Dixie |
From January 3, 1945, to January 3, 1949, he served in the 79th and 80th United States Congress, losing to Dixie Gilmer in 1948.