Geraldine P. Cuthbertson - Memorial Booklet

In Loving Memory Of

Geraldine Payne Cuthbertson November 13, 1945 - February 19, 2021

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Onward Christian Soldier!

Onward, Christian soldiers! Marching as to war. With the cross of Jesus. Going on before. Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle, see his banners go!

Onward, Christian soldiers! Marching as to war. With the cross of Jesus. Going on before.

Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior

Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling.

Do not pass me by. Savior, Savior. Hear my humble cry.

While on others Thou art calling. Do not pass me by.

Thou the spring of all my comfort. More than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee?

Whom in Heav'n but Thee? Savior, Savior. Hear my humble cry.

While on others Thou art calling. Do not pass me by

Oh, How I Love Jesus

There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth.

It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth.

It tells me of a Savior's love. Who died and set me free.

It tells me of His precious blood. The sinner's perfect plea.

Singing Hymns Geraldine loved to sing hymns. She kept a copy of the A.M.E. Zion Hymnal and Songs of Zion at home. It is very fitting to sing the hymns she loved.

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Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;

November 13, 1945 Born in Cooleemee, NC 1950s - 1960's Childhood & Teenage Years

1964 Graduate from Central Davie High School Mocksville, NC

1966 Charles is born 1966 William & Geraldine get married 1968 Rodney is born

1972 Traci is born

1974 Sister Marilyn joins the family

1978 Geraldine Becomes FT Homemaker

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1980 1980's - 1990's Super booster parent years 1990 Become empty nesters 1991 Celebrate 25th Wedding Anniversary

1994 Grandson Jamar is born 1996 Granddaughter Zavia is born

2000 Granddaughter Vivien is born

2001 Grandson Ryan is born 2002 Grandson Adrian is born

2016 Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary

John 11:25

2020 75th Birthday

I am the resurrection, and the life: she that believeth in me, though she were dead, yet shall she live.

February 19, 2021 Transition to Eternal Life 5

A Life Well Lived

Purpose & Passion Community, church, and family were Geraldine's passions.

Her love for them was demonstrated in all the ways that she gave -- her time, money, energy, and talents.

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54 Years of Marriage William and Geraldine were married on July 9, 1966 at the Davie County Courthouse. On July 9, 2016, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a reception at the Livingstone College Hospitality Center in Salisbury, NC.

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Family Tree Parents Stella Payne White James Edward Allison

Maternal Grandparents Deloast Payne Savannah Hairston Payne

Paternal Grandparents John Allison Ellen Maxwell Allison

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Early Years Geraldine was raised by her maternal grandaparents, Mama Jean and Daddy Dyke or simply "Mama" and "Daddy" as she called them.

Savannah Hairston Payne "Mama Jean"

Geraldine and her father, James Edward Allison High Point, NC September 2017

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Devoted Mother Way before there were soccer moms, there were parents who faitfully supported all of their children's extracurricular activities.

According to Geraldine they were SUPER booster parents -football, basketball, wrestling, track, and band.

Charles Alexander Cuthbertson Rodney Eugene Cuthbertson Traci Renee Cuthbertson

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Loving Grandma Geraldine shared a special relationship with all of her grandchildren. When they were younger, she was parttime caretaker and full-time Grandma, always making sure they had a 'little spending change' in their pocket. .

Tommy Jamar McGee Zavia Renaye Rudisell Vivien Adesta Rudisell Ryan Alexander Cuthbertson Adrian Lamont Rudisell

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Zavia's College Graduation UNC-Charlotte December, 2018

Ryan's High School Graduation AL Brown High School June, 2020

Vivien's High School Graduation Salem Academy May, 2018

Adrian's High School Graduation North Rowan High School June, 2020

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Jamar's Visit Cleveland, NC Summer 2019

NMAAHC Washington, DC November, 2019

Birthday Dinner With Tony Teamer November, 2008

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Big Sister Geraldine was the oldest of her siblings. When their mother, Stella, died in 1974, Geraldine became a mother-like figure to her brothers and sisters who were still very young at the time.

Brenda Williams Robert White Shirley Gray Janice Davis Vivian Richardson Michael White Ernestine Harding Marilyn Rice Frances James Harriet White Darlene White Charlene Smith Garnette Capel

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Faithful Servant In her early years, Geraldine was a member of Friendship Baptist Church in Cooleemee, NC where she fell in love with Sunday School. After she married William, she became an active member of Cedar Grove A.M.E. Zion Church in Cleveland, NC

Ordained Deaconess Sunday School Superintendent Trustee Board W.H.O.M. Society Parent Body W.H.O.M. Life Member Christian Ed Director - Adults Buds of Promise Superintendent Usher Board Local Lay Council Salisbury District Hymn Choir Vacation Bible School Annual Conference Delegate Church Women United Rep

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Family Reunions Family was very important to Geraldine, so it's no surprise that she looked forward to attending family reunions each year. Some of the ones that were near and dear to her heart: National Hairston Clan Reunion Payne Family Reunion White Family Reunion Cuthbertson Family Reunion

Payne Family Reunion Hampton , VA Circa 2006

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Cuthbertson Family Reunion Cleveland, NC August 2013

White Family Reunion Mocksville, NC August 2011

Hairston Clan Family Reunion Greensboro, NC Circa 1991

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Family Trips Geraldine always looked forward to our family trips. In recent years we rented a house to spend the Thanksgiving holiday together as a family.

Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner Charleston, SC November, 2017

Family Photo - Gang's All Here Charleston, SC November, 2017

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Ready to go!

Headed to Charleston, SC November, 2017

Everybody say 'Cheese' Washington, DC November 2019

Locked and loaded!

Headed to Washington, DC November 2019

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More About

Civic Reponsibility

Geraldine

Geraldine took her civic responsibility seriously. She became a registered voter at age 18 and was committed to voting in every primary and general election.

No Middle Name Geraldine was not given a middle name at birth. After she married, she used her maiden name as her middle name.

Nickname Although she didn't have a nickname like most of her childhood friends in Cooleemee, she mostly went by a shortened version of her name, Gerald. And William sometimes called her "Shorty".

Avid Reader She favored novels by Black women authors like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, and Dori Sanders.

Tax Time For many years she was the neighborhood tax preparer. She was good with words AND numbers.

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Volunteer She was a volunteer with Meals on Wheels.

She and William delivered meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the West Rowan area.

Baking She enjoyed baking. She was known for her red velvet cakes and sweet potato pies.

Sweet Tooth Eating chocolate candy bars was a common indulgence. Milky Way was her top choice, but she also favored Mr. Goodbar and Hershey Chocolate bars.

TV Time Watching tv was another favorite pastime. Some of her favorite shows were the local news broadcasts, Jeopardy! game show, westerns, and other black & white classics like Andy Griffith and the Waltons.

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Music Lover Geraldine enjoyed singing and listening to music. She especially liked singing hymns.

Her favorite singer was Aretha Franklin.

Storyteller She was an entertaining storyteller. She told the funniest stores about growing up in Cooleemee.

Soft Drinks Pepsi was her favorite soft drink.

Correction, a canned Pepsi was her favorite soft drink.

Let's Hear It For the Leftie Although she was left-handed, Geraldine had excellent penmanship. She credits her teachers at Cooleemee school who emphasized good handwriting.

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Puzzles Solving crossword, word search, and fill-in puzzles were one of her hobbies. She also enjoyed playing digital games like Candy Crush.

Dancing Queen In her younger years, she was known for being a great dancer. She spent many a night on the dance floor at the Cooleemee Hall. She was once got to dance on American Bandstand.

Shopping She liked shopping, especially for clothes. She also liked scented lotions, candles, jewelry, hats, and handbags. Her small collection of designer handbags was almost exclusively from QVC.

Newspapers & Magazines Reading the newspaper was a daily ritual. She subscribed to the Salisbury Post. And for many years the Davie County Enterprise Record, too. She was also a long-time subscriber to the Star of Zion and these magazines: Ebony, Southern Living, and Our State.

Sports Fan Geraldine was a sports fan. She enjoyed watching local and national sports on t.v. -mostly basketball and football. She claims she wasn't a Charlotte Hornets fan, but she watched every home game.

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Memorials If roses grow in heaven, Lord please pick a bunch for me, Place them in my Mother’s arms and tell her they’re from me.

Tell her I love her and miss her, and when she turns to smile, place a kiss upon her cheek and hold her for awhile.

Because remembering her is easy, I do it every day, but there’s an ache within my heart that will never go away.

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I’ll love my mother all my days, For enriching my life in so many ways.

She set me straight and then set me free, And that’s what the word “mother” means to me.

When I think about my mom’s love, it was not the conventional type you think of, but she was always supporting us, attending all our activities and events and always having our back. It was the type of love you could definitely feel.

Two of the things that I admired about my mom was her love for and her willingness to help her family, especially her grandkids. She always talked them.

And the other was the love for her hometown of Cooleemee, NC. Listening to her funny stories about Cooleemee and the people in the town would make you believe it was the best town in the world!

After I moved away from home, anytime I would feel down or needed advice or just a place to clear my head, going back home would make me feel so much better. I thought I it was just going back to the house where I was raised that made me feel better. But as I grew older, I realized it was the love of my parents that had a way of making me feel better, and not the house.

Miss you and love you mom, Rodney

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A Tribute to Mom What is a mother?

It seems so simple. But yet as you think about it, the answer starts to get more complex because the experience is not only unique to each mother, but also to each child.

I don't remember how old I was, but I was complaining to my mom about being treated differently from my brothers and it was unfair. She treats us all differently because we're different people and we had different needs.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was a gift.

Because of that, I came to understand how much my mother really loved me. I came to understand that she saw me not just as a daughter, but also a person. An individual. A bundle of personality that did not need to be tamed by arbitrary societal constraints.

And in that, it gave me the freedom to be me, because “love liberates”.

If you think about it, most of us were probably taught how to be good in our societal roles. How to be a good student. A good employee. A good mother. A good neighbor. A good Christian.

How often are we taught how to simply be ourselves? For me, I can say that I had the perfect example in my mom of how to truly be yourself and live life unapologetically.

Geraldine Payne was born on November 13, 1945. Just 2 months after the end of WWII. She was a mix of both the Silent and Baby Boomer generations, and as I often would say, she was a product of her time and circumstances.

She was born to a teenage mother, Stella, who was 15 years old at the time. Her father, James Edward, was also a teenager. They never married. Geraldine was raised by her grandparents, Daddy Dyke and Mama Jean, or she as she called them, “Mama” and “Daddy”.

Here she was, a black baby girl born in the rural, Jim Crow south to unwed teenage parents and raised by grandparents that today we might describe as the working poor.

As a result of these circumstances, many doors and opportunities were closed to her. My mother was a person with dreams deferred and some never realized. She once told me she wanted to be a pharmacist.

She had the brains for it. She didn't have the resources to follow a desired path.

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But despite all of those things, my mother was very proud and confident in who she was. And she was extremely proud of her family and her community. You couldn’t tell her that Cooleemee was not the best place in the world to grow up.

In those days, Cooleemee, N.C. was a small, close-knit mill community where she formed lifelong friendships with Mrs. Emma Griffin and Mrs. Eloise Frost. Or Emma and Weed as she called them.

Her early years centered around school and church. She attended Cooleemee School and went on to graduate from Central Davie High School where she was the Salutatorian and Class VP of the Class of 1964.

She was a member of Friendship Baptist Church in Cooleemee where she fell in love with Sunday School.

One of my favorite stories of hers was when she, Emma, and Weed got in trouble for reciting, “Jesus wept.

Moses crept. Peter fell down the backdoor steps.” As their Bible verses one Sunday.

She was the oldest of 13 siblings. When her mother Stella died in 1974, Geraldine became a mother-like figure to her younger siblings, some as Young as 4 years old at the time. She was also the oldest of her cousins, and shared a special relationship with Mrs. Doris Brown, or Skip as we call her.

Her community, her church, and her family were her passions. Her love for them was demonstrated in all the ways that she gave -- her time, money, energy, and talents.

She'll be missed and remembered fondly for her strong opinions. Her penchant for telling it like it is. #NoFilter. Her red velvet cake. Her Red Seal snuff. her penchant for notetaking, near-perfect penmanship.

Her funny Cooleemee stories. Her funny sayings In a lot of ways, my mom was unconventional. Growing up she never seemed to be the type of mother that I wanted her to be. You know, like the ones I saw on t.v. And now, I’m so glad that she wan’t Today, it's not grief or sadness that I feel as I stand here. But rather a debt of gratitude to my mother for all that she did for me. For us.

I also feel a sense of urgency and renewed purpose to now take the ball that's been handed off from her hands to mine, and run with it as far as I can go -- like she and so many before me did. And so that I can do the same for those who follow me.

And finally, I stand here and I feel blessed. Because I’ve come to realize that all along, I had the privilege of not only having the mother I needed, but also the one I actually wanted. Just like the ones on t.v., but only much better. Thank you mom.

I love you. And I’ll miss you. May you rest in peace.

Traci

The first 12 years of my life Geraldine and I lived with our Grandmother, or “Mama” as we called her, as sisters. When Gerald came to live with me and my parents after she graduated from High School it all seemed so natural.

To Geraldine I want to say: although you never believed yourself to be perfect you were the one person we all strived to be like. From my perspective you were the EQUALIZER. With so little effort you made sure everyone in the family knew that you would treat all of us equal.

Because of that we all felt special to you. I loved you for that, I loved you for being humble, I loved you for being loyal, I loved you for being a family leader, I loved you for being a Woman of God and most of all I loved you for being You! Thank God for allowing me to say all of these things to you while you were yet able to hear them and laugh and deny as only you could. I didn’t even hold it against you (not for long) for telling me I was too young to go with you on American Band Stand.

My heart is broken and one piece will forever be missing.

With love and sadness, Doris (Skip)

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Words can never express how heavy my heart has been since Gerald’s passing. She called me on Valentine’s Day and we had a long conversation as we always do. Our phone call ended by us telling each other, “I love you!”

We were true sisters all of our lives. We didn’t have the same mother, nor the same father, but we were true heart sisters. I didn’t consider her a cousin because we were closer than that, so we just claimed each other as sister. My sister Eloise felt the same way about her, too. Since I was the oldest, they always accused me of getting them in trouble when we were growing up simply because I encouraged them to do certain things we weren’t supposed to be doing.

I am so blessed to have had a special person who was ever present in spirit...Whose care and concerns were felt even from a distance…and whose love and friendship was always given as a gift.

When I look back at our lives, I realize that we experienced a lot together. We listened to each other’s frustrations, comforted each other’s sorrows, and given each other hope that every challenge in life could be met. It didn’t seem to matter how long it had been between visits, as we picked up right where we left off. I’m so thankful that Gerald was a part of my life.

Some days I just needed someone to be there for a laugh or an old memory…On my “some days”, there was Gerald. She brightened my life.

I will always love you, Emma

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Until We Meet Again We think about you always, We talk about you still.

You have never been forgotten, And you never will.

We hold you close within our hearts.

And there you will remain.

To walk and guide us through our lives, Until we meet again.

Geraldine Payne Cuthbertson November 13, 1945 - February 19, 2021