Obituaries

Geraldine S. Wells

Geraldine Wells

Geraldine S. Wells of Oceanside, Calif., formerly of Southold, N.Y., died at her home Nov. 28. Gerrie was 87 years young.

Gerrie was born April 2, 1931, in East Hampton, N.Y., and later moved to Greenport N.Y., where she was raised by her stepfather and mother, Elizabeth Grace Smith. Her father, Vivian Smith, worked on a fishing boat and was lost at sea during the hurricane of 1938 off the New England coast. His name is included on a memorial at the Montauk Lighthouse of the fishermen who lost their lives during that severe storm.

Gerrie met Mason Wells while living in Greenport and they married in 1950. They resided at a Cutchogue farm on Skunk Lane with his grandparents, Ada and Dr. John H. Wells.

Gerrie worked as a nurse at Eastern Long Island Hospital and was instrumental in bringing the first nursing union, #1199, to Eastern Long Island.

In 1978 she, her husband and family moved to Omaha, Neb., and then to Oceanside, Calif., where she resided until her death.

She was predeceased by her brother, Joseph Smith, of New York. She is survived by her sister, Marilyn Smith Maine, of New York; daughters Karen of Southold, N.Y., and Conni of Vista, Calif.; her sons, David and Brad of Oceanside; five grandchildren, Sienna and Daniel of California, Jacob and Jeremy Bullock of California and David Anthony of Arizona; and four great-grandchildren, Zaleia, Ely, Orion and Hawkins Bullock of California.

Gerrie’s ashes will be interred in the family plots of (Barnabus T. Billard family) at the North Fork United Methodist Church in Cutchogue, N.Y., and (Joseph Smith family) at the Catholic Church in East Hampton.