Geraldine Nelson Thomas

August 10, 1923 – April 24, 2021

Geraldine Elizabeth Nelson Thomas, age 97, a resident of Mobile, Alabama, passed away peacefully at a local nursing home on Saturday, April 24, 2021. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Myron Thomas; her parents, SorenNelson, Jr., and Fay Geraldine Wolfe Nelson; a brother, Soren Nelson III; two sisters, Mary Louise Nelson Demetropolis and Kathleen R. Nelson; and a son, Douglas S. Brown. She is survived by one son, Kurtis N. (Brenda) Thomas of Mobile, Alabama; two daughters,Lyndell M. (Charles) Haenlein of Athens, Alabama, and Sheri L. Thomas of Mobile, Alabama; a daughter-in-law, Diane R. Brown of Gresham, Oregon; three grandchildren: Shannon Brown and Christian D. Brown of Gresham, Oregon, and Karen E. Thomas of Mobile, Alabama;one great-grandson, Trent Brown of Gresham, Oregon; nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends.

Geraldine went by “Geri” as an adult but was always known as “Deanie” by her family. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and spent her early childhood in Dearborn, Michigan, and Goshen, Indiana, where her career military father was stationed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the age of 10, she moved with her family to Bayou La Batre and later to Mobile, Alabama. After attending schools in the area, including Murphy High School, she graduated at the age of 15 from Ursuline Academy in New Orleans. Geri soon left home for Atlanta and New York City, living in boarding houses for young working women run by the Catholic sisters. During the years of WWII, she worked for the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Shipbuilding in New York, Charleston, and Savannah. Geri lived in Oregon and California as a young wife and mother. She returned home to Mobile with husband Don and her two youngest children in 1966 to help care for her father, and worked with her sisters for several years in a family-owned upholstery business. Geri was employed by the American Red Cross in Mobile as a blood donation records data entry operator from 1977 until she retired in 1990.

As a 4-year-old, Geri suffered severe hearing loss in both ears after a bout with scarlet fever, mastoiditis and 1920s-era surgery. Despite her hearing impairment, she learned to play the piano and violin. Feisty, fearless and independent, she never allowed her poor hearing to hold her back from anything she set her mind to do. In 1987, she was one of the first Alabama patients to undergo what was at the time a ground-breaking surgical procedure, implantation of an electromagnetic temporal bone stimulator to allow hearing through bone conduction. She was always grateful to the doctors and staff at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine who made it possible for her to hear sounds she had never been able to hear before.

Geri was an outgoing, friendly person who never met a stranger. Always cheerful with a bright, contagious smile, she was a delight to all who knew her. In keeping with her loving and generous spirit, it was her decision to donate her body to the University of South Alabama College of Medicine Anatomical Gifts Program. A graveside memorial service will be held at a later date.