Geraldine Truesdale

Geraldine (Loughlin) Truesdale passed away at home surrounded by her loving family on Friday, November 25, 2022 Gerry was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Gertrude Rebecca (Jeffers) and Robert Andrew Loughlin. Coming from a large family, she was pre-deceased by her parents, brothers Robert (Bobby), Lawrence (Larry), William (Billy), and Earl, and sisters Agnes (Aggie) Loughlin, Gertrude Loughlin, Elizabeth (Libby) (Kichta), and two infant siblings. Always being a hard worker, doing cleaning jobs and other varied tasks for neighbors, she graduated from high school in 1957 and moved from Pittsburgh to Alexandria, where she lived with her sister Aggie and family, getting her first “official” job at Eastern Airlines located at DC National Airport. At Eastern Airlines she became remarkably close friends with her future sister-in-law, Evelyn Truesdale. Evelyn liked her so much that she set Gerry up on a blind date with her little brother Frank. It was “love at first date” and they were married November 21, 1959, residing in Alexandria for 45 years, moving to Fredericksburg, Virginia in 2006 after her retirement. Gerry and Frank welcomed their first child, who they name Evelyn, after Frank’s sister, in August 1960. Gerry left Eastern Airlines to become a full-time mother. They had three more children, Kathleen in 1962, Jennifer in 1966, and finally got her baby boy Brian in 1973. With the arrival of her first grandchild in 1984, the family continued to grow, and she loved every minute of it. The grand kids were her greatest joy in life, asking to watch them at every chance she could. In fact, she loved children so much that she worked with the babies in the church nursery for many years. In addition to her career at Eastern, she worked in the school cafeteria of Fairfax County for a few years, which allowed her to spend evenings with her husband and family. After leaving the school system, she started a cleaning business with her sister Martha, being excellent at their craft, they had a waiting list for their services. In 1990 the US Government was short on employees and offered a training program to recruit, she completed the training, learning to use computers, and joined the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, working there for 15 years, until retiring. Pre-deceased by her husband Frank in 2019, she is survived by sisters Gloria Loughlin, Martha Taylor, and Kathleen Bussard, children Evelyn and husband Stephen (Kitchen), Kathleen and husband Michael (Tillery), Jennifer and husband Kirk (Merkle), and Brian and wife Jill. There are 12 grandchildren that she loved more than anything – Christopher and Jason Kitchen, Timothy and Brian Tillery, Justin, Jessica, and Joshua Merkle, and Victoria ‘Tori’, Alexis ‘Lexi’, Seth, Halynn, and Ryker Truesdale, and a great-grandson Magnus (Timothy Tillery). In lieu of flowers, please send donations to United Community Ministries (UCM) http://www.ucmagency.org. We would also like to give our deep, heartfelt thanks to the many care givers and medtechs who took the most awesome, loving care of Gerry over the past three years, and especially at the last days of her life. Thank you. Funeral Details: Public visitation for friends will be held 10:00 -11:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2022, at Jefferson Funeral Chapel, 5755 Castlewellan Dr, Alexandria, VA 22315. Funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 1, 2022, at Jefferson Funeral Chapel, 5755 Castlewellan Dr, Alexandria, VA 22315. Graveside burial will be held at Mount Comfort Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia. A reception for family and friends will follow at Northside 10, 10 East Glebe Road, Alexandria, VA.

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Geraldine Truesdale

June 27, 1939 - November 25, 2022