Geraldine V. Sommer

Geraldine V. (Harris) Sommer died peacefully in Port Orange, Fla., on the bright and beautiful morning of Sunday, October 5, 2003. A former York resident, Gerry was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., one of three daughters of Vera and Frank Harris. She married fellow Pittsburgh native Robert V. Sommer on May 2, 1944, and worked for the U.S. Bureau of Mines during her husband's wartime service in the South Pacific. A homemaker who lived in the Baldwin, Peters Township, and Bethel Park suburbs of Pittsburgh before moving to the Colonial Heights section of York Township, Gerry retired with her husband to Florida, where she created a wide circle of friends in the Daytona Beach area. Hospital volunteer and prolific electronic correspondent, Gerry was her husband's indispensable partner, and served as an indefatigable source of support and encouragement for her children and grandchildren. She will be especially missed by a loving immediate family and large extended family, including her husband, Bob; sons, Bob, Ron and Jack; daughters-in-law, Chris, Sue and Linda; grandchildren, Nathan, Brian, Jessica, Samantha, and Matt; Samantha's husband, Todd, and Nathan's wife, Jody, at whose springtime wedding she danced; her sisters, Peggy and Eileen, their husbands, children and families; Bob's brothers, Bill, Don and Jim and sister, Dorothy, and their spouses, children and families. Blessed with great personal beauty, high style, and a brilliant Irish wit, Gerry used her gifts to the fullest. Private internment will take place at Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, with celebrations of the happiness she brought into so many lives in so many places to follow later this month. Donations in her memory to the York Benevolent Association, 246 West College Ave., York, PA 17404 are encouraged, as are small acts of kindness performed with a warm smile and good heart.