Obituary: Geraldine Townsend

Geraldine Townsend, at 81

Geraldine Marie Townsend (Gerry Shea) died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at the AVOW Hospice House in Naples, Florida. She was 81.

Born March 22, 1942, in Boston, she lived in Jamaica Plain until moving to Hull in her freshman year of high school. After high school, she worked at the South Shore Bank in Quincy until she married.

Subsequently she lived in Weymouth, Marshfield, Fort Worth, Texas, and then again in Hull. Mrs. Townsend worked at various jobs before becoming a procedures clerk for the Massachusetts Trial Court System. She retired from the court system after 12 years in 2001 and kept herself busy gardening and volunteering in the Hull schools prior to moving to Naples, Fla., in 2005, where she developed a love of shelling.

Mrs. Townsend is survived by her husband, William E. (Bill) Townsend, and her children, Christopher Townsend and his wife, Amanda, of Naples, Fla., Heather Townsend and her husband, Kevin, of Fort Myers, and Tracey Mancini and her husband, Matt, of Stratham, N.H. She is survived by six grandchildren: Patricia, Jane, Suzanne, Rachel, John, and Maddie; and by two great-grandchildren: Ingrid and Reggie; and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her mother and father, Dorothy and Joseph Shea; her brother, Joseph Shea; and her sister, Patricia Jones.

Services will be held at Fuller Funeral Home in Naples on Thursday, July 6, with a visitation followed by a memorial service. Memorial contributions in Mrs. Townsend’s name may be made to AVOW Hospice, 1095 Whippoorwill Lane, Naples, FL 34105.