Geraldine “Gerry” Lenore (Vickers) Harrison
June 23, 1922 – October 7, 2015
Gerry was one of six children to Linnie (Faber) Vickers and William Henry Vickers. Gerry grew up on a dairy farm in Elkview, along with her three brothers William (“Bill”), Charles and John (all deceased) and her two sisters Joan and Louise (two sisters are red-heads). Joan and her husband Jim Guthrie live in Charleston; Louise and her husband Paul Wilson live in a log house they built on the family farm in Elkview.
Growing up Gerry was active in the 4-H; she planted and canned fruits and vegetables and raised a prize-winning cow one year. In 1939 she and one of her best friends won a State 4-H competition and were invited to California for the Nationals. Although they lost in the National demonstration, the trip began her life-long love of travel. On the trip to California, they visited the Grand Canyon and took the horse ride all the way down into the Canyon and back (she looked quite jaunty on horseback with her cowboy hat, jeans and plaid jacket).
Gerry attended West Virginia University in Morgantown beginning in 1940. At a wartime dance in Morgantown she met a handsome southern gentleman named Henry “Hank” Harrison from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He was stationed with the 48th College Training Detachment Unit of the Army Air Force in Morgantown. According to family lore, Gerry cut in on Hank at the dance and Hank always insisted that he publicly stated that very night that he hoped to someday marry that “red-head” from Elkview.
After graduation from WVU in June 1944 with a BS in Home Economics, Gerry worked as a 4-H agent and then in July 1945 she went to Boston as a dietitian at the Andover-Newton Baptist Seminary. Hank was discharged from the service in February 1946 and he moved to Boston. They were married on April 19th, 1946 in the Elkview Baptist Church. Both Gerry and Hank were active American Baptists throughout their lives.
After Hank’s graduation from WVU in 1950 he became a procurement officer for the Veterans Administration hospitals and consequently the family moved every 3 – 6 years to 15 home addresses including Wisconsin, West Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Gerry and Hank had two children: Walter Henry Harrison (“Buddy” and later Walt) and Patricia Lenore Harrison (“Patty” and later Tricia). Walt and his wife Zoe have two children, Brooke and Zachary, who Gerry dearly adored.
Gerry and Hank loved to travel and the entire family took a number of camping trips across the United States, putting up their tent in National Parks and visiting the local sites. These included Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Crater Lake, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon and Disneyland in California (this was a very big deal for their kids in 1961). Gerry and Hank’s last trip together before his illness was a long anticipated raft trip on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon; they had a blast.
Gerry went back to school again and graduated with her MA in Library Sciences from Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois in 1975 (the same year her son left college and married). Gerry was chief librarian for eight La Grange, IL school district elementary schools.
Hank developed early Alzheimer’s in the 1970’s. He entered a care facility in Chicago until Gerry retired. She returned to the family farm in Elkview, WV (“Oakdale”) in 1987 and built a house that overlooked the home she grew up in and the beautiful mountains of WV. Hank entered a care facility and died in 1992. After Hank’s death, Gerry became active in nursing home issues and eventually became a volunteer ombudsman for the State of West Virginia, appointed by the governor, where she stated “she wanted to be a catalyst for change”. She also continued her life-long commitment for women’s rights and education and was a past president of the West Virginia American Association of University Women (AAUW). She continued to write newspaper articles and began writing poetry. In 1992 she published “My Name He Could Not Remember, An Alzheimer’s Story” which movingly describes Gerry’s struggle with, activism for and ultimate acceptance of Hank’s disease. And, Gerry never lost her desire to travel and meet new people after Hank’s death. She visited Russia (where she helped build a school with her church group), Israel, the fjords of Norway / Denmark, Alaska (with her grandson Zach), Germany, Africa and China.
In 2001 Gerry had a mini-stroke and that prompted her move to Edgewood Summit and several years later moved to the assisted living side, Ridgemont. She eventually moved to the Edgewood Summit Arthur B. Hodges Center.
Gerry remained close to her family and is known for her spunk, politics and occasional wit, all of which she has passed on to her children and grandchildren, for which they are most grateful.