In Loving Memory of Geraldine Marie Kearns: July 31, 1937 - February 8, 2023
Geraldine Marie Kearns was born July 31, 1937 to Frank “Curley” Gasper and Dorothy {Marshall} Gasper in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Mark Twain Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side and graduated June 22, 1951. She graduated from Thomas Kelly High on June 24, 1955, where she was a member of the Choir and the Girls Athletic Association.
Geraldine married the love of her life, Edward Patrick Kearns Jr. on February 20th, 1960 at St. Jane De Chantal Catholic Church, just two blocks from the house she grew up in.
Gerry began teaching at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Elementary School in 1964, and would remain there until her retirement in June of 1999. She began her career with a teaching certificate from Chicago Teachers College, and would later receive her Bachelor’s of Science in Education from Chicago State University on December 20, 1971.
On January 20, 1972, she gave birth to her son Edward (III).
After 25 years of marriage. Geraldine lost her husband in September, 1985 to an airplane crash in Shefferville, Canada. She would raise her son on her own, and put him through college.
Geraldine was a long time member of the Delavan Lake Yacht Club and
Garden Club and a friend to all in the Assembly Park community.
After her retirement in 1999, she tutored English as a second language to seminarians from Africa and South and Central America at the Comboni Mission Center in Hyde Park as they studied to become priests and missionaries. One of her great joys was to learn about her student’s cultures and in turn sharing hers with them by taking them throughout Chicago to museums and restaurants.
As an adventurer and lover of nature and the great outdoors, Geraldine made many lifelong friends in the Fur, Fin and Feather Club with whom she made numerous trips to the Canadian Wilderness and enjoyed hiking trips in the Smoky Mountains, as well as points closer to home, with her close circle of “walking friends.”
As a lifelong practicing Catholic, she was active in both the St. Mary Star of the Sea and St. Jane de Chantal parishes as a Eucharistic Minister and religious educator. She also enjoyed volunteering for the St. Patrick’s Residence. She was strong in her belief and chose to lead her life in example of the power of love, forgiveness, charity and random acts of kindness.
Having no grandchildren of her own, one of her great joys was doting on her many great nieces and nephews and maintained close personal relationships with them throughout their lives.
Geraldine is preceded in death by her husband Edward and her brother Albert Potempa, and is survived by her son Edward and her many nieces and nephews.
A Funeral Mass will be held at 8:30am on Friday, June 30, 2023 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Delavan, WI. A Celebration of Life will follow at the Delavan Lake Yacht Club, beginning with brunch at 10:00am, with live music to follow throughout the afternoon.
To leave an online condolence, please fill out your message in the box below. You will then be taken to another screen which you can leave your name and email (No website URL needed). Simply comment as a guest and your condolence will be posted.
