March 23, 1924 – Dec. 16, 2014
Concord, Calif.
Geraldine Verrelle Burke, 90, passed away peacefully Dec. 16, 2014, at the Montecito Assisted Living Center in Concord, Calif. She was attended to by her two daughters and two sons until the end.
Geraldine, or “Jerry,” as she was always known, was born in Seattle March 23, 1924, to Milo Jungbluth and Verrelle (O’Leary) Jungbluth of Oak Harbor, Wash. She had one brother, Edward, who predeceased her. She was raised on Whidbey Island, in Washington’s Puget Sound, on land from the original land donation claim awarded to her ancestor, Ulrich Freund of Switzerland in 1851. She was proud to have been raised on the island and to have kept a connection to it up until her death. She graduated from Washington State University in 1945; while there, she earned her private pilot’s license, one of the few women at that time to do so.
She married the love of her life, William David Burke, Aug. 15, 1948, in Oak Harbor. They were married for 64 years, until his death in October of 2012. Jerry had four children, William (Pam), of Austin, Texas; Susan (Lowell) Williamson, of Burbank, Calif.; Michael (Patricia O’Donnell), of Wilton, Maine; and Patricia (John) Larson, of Concord. She had 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Jerry participated in the lives of her children through Campfire Girls, by being one of the founding members of the Gehringer Park Swim Club of Concord and by driving them to and from band rehearsals and concerts, swim meets, and to the Sierra to camp and ski. Every year, the family would drive from Concord to Oak Harbor to visit with Jerry’s mother, Verrelle, on the family land on Whidbey Island. She and Bill took many trips to Hawaii, to Maui, their favorite island, and cruised several times to Alaska and in the Pacific. Jerry was involved with the Concord Garden Club for many years, was an editor of the California Music Educators magazine and was treasurer of the Gehringer Swim Club.
Her ashes will be spread in San Francisco Bay in September 2015, and a memorial marker to her will be placed in the Pioneer Burial Cemetery of Oak Harbor that same month. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Pioneer Burial Association, 355 N. Oak St., Oak Harbor, WA 98277.
