E. Geraldine "Gerry" Van Bramer, formerly of 97 Grange Hall Road, Dalton, died January 19, 2015, at Mount Carmel Care Center in Lenox, where she had resided for the past year.
Born in Pittsfield on July 20, 1921, the daughter of Robert Bruce and Edna Breck Andrews, she graduated from Pittsfield High School, attended West Virginia University, American International College, Berkshire Business College, and graduated from the teacher's
training class at the Concept-Therapy Institute in San Antonio, Texas. For several years, she
took classes at Berkshire Community College and was a charter member of the Hands Across
the Generations Scholarship Committee at BCC.
She was a life-long member of the First Methodist Church in Pittsfield where she sang
in the choir, taught Sunday School, was superintendent of the Junior High Department, and
served on various committees. She was a Den Mother for the Cub Scouts for five years, and
was a former member of the Pittsfield Women's College Club.
Always involved in anything musical, she played violin in several local groups in her
younger years, played bugle in the Dalton Girl Scouts Drum and Bugle Corp, played clarinet in
the West Virginia University Marching Band, and was substitute pianist for the Dalton Rotary
Follies rehearsals. She was a member of the cast of the Dalton Follies for several years, as
well as other dinner-theater presentations, and planned and co-directed the musical dinner-theater show at St. Agnes Church in Dalton in 1988, and was in the show "Music Man" in the 1960s.
During college, she worked as a waitress at Howard Johnson's. In World War II, she
worked for the U.S. Weather Bureau. When her children were grown, she was the office
manager/bookkeeper for Dr. Paul Battaglino for several years and then receptionist for Politis
Chiropractic Office. She did bookkeeping for the South Mountain Music Association until her
retirement, and was organist at Pilgrim Memorial Church in Pittsfield and the Congregational
Church in Hinsdale. She also spent 15 years teaching Concept Therapy weekend seminars in
Massachusetts and New York State. She retired in 1996 as bookkeeper at the Dalton Avenue
Friendly. She is survived by a son, Gene Van Bramer of Pittsfield, and a daughter, Anne Demick of
Stephentown, NY; three grandsons, two step-granddaughters, and four great grandchildren.
She was predeceased by a son, Thomas, in 1974, and a daughter, Barbara, in 2005.

FUNERAL NOTICE:
A memorial service for E. Geraldine "Gerry" Van Bramer will be held Thursday,
January 22, at 1:00 p.m., at the DERY FUNERAL HOME in PITTSFIELD. Visitation will
precede the service beginning at 12:30.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Dalton Ambulance
and Rescue in care of the Funeral Home, 54 Bradford Street, Pittsfield.

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