Geraldine Elizabeth Pletcher was born in Rochester Pennsylvania near Beaver Falls in 1929 as the first of four children of Gerald Munson and Evelyn Elm Munson. She grew up in Conneaut Lake Pennsylvania with her two beautiful sisters, Pat and Janet, and her brother, Gerald. In high school she was a cheerleader for the men and women’s basketball teams, and during games with nearby, Conneautville, Pennsylvania, she caught the eye of a handsome guy by the name of Robert Eugene Pletcher (Gene), who was on the Conneautville basketball team.

After graduation from high school as a student at Edinboro State Teachers College, in Pennsylvania, she was walking across the campus one day when she was stopped by a young man who said, “hey I think I know who you are”. The rest is history; they were married and raised two boys in Conneautville (Paul and Alan), and Geraldine then went back to college and received her Master's of Fine Arts degree at Penn State University and later received her PhD at George Peabody college in Nashville. She became a full professor at Tennessee State University, and the University of Tennessee branch in Nashville.

She was an accomplished artist in the mediums of acrylic painting, and zinc plate printmaking, and exhibited her work at many shows, galleries, and museums around the country, winning numerous awards.

She and her husband enjoyed snow skiing, water skiing, tennis, and their 31-foot Chris-Craft Commander cruiser they ran on the Cumberland River. They traveled to many countries around the world, enjoyed their beautiful, wooded property in West Nashville, loved their Dalmatians, and spent winters at Pass-a-Grille Beach, Florida.

It has been said many times (and always in a positive manner), “that if General Patton had been replaced by Geraldine in World War II, the war would’ve been over sooner.” Behind her always positive, polite, and engaging personality was an amazing internal drive to “accomplish things”, and she did accomplish great things.

A minor accomplishment for her, but a major accomplishment overall, was when her son Paul had the measles in grade school and had to stay home for a week. He didn’t just stay home to be pampered and recover; oh no, the time was utilized by an intense daily drill program of flashcards and verbal phrases like ”six eights are forty eight." When Paul went back to his third grade class a week later, he amazed all his classmates (and his teacher) by miraculously knowing the multiplication tables (and later when on to get A-grades in math).

After Gene passed away in 2020, Geraldine lived alone for a period of time, and when it became evident she needed more support, she entered a condominium healthcare facility. As she progressed into her late 90s she was eventually admitted to a high-end memory care community and received the best care, protection, and attention possible. She had many friends within that vibrant community and was loved by all of the caregivers. Although her memory began to fade and her cheerleader body weakened with age, she remained remarkably positive to the very end.

A dedicated Facebook website has been created to showcase the rich and productive lives of Geraldine and Gene, with hundreds of photographs of these two amazing people who became known as “the power couple of the Nashville art scene.” The Facebook page can be found at this link: Robert Eugene and Geraldine Elizabeth Pletcher