Obituary of Geraldine Coleman

Mrs. Geraldine Mason Coleman, 87, of Haynesville, LA, was granted audience with the Lord on Monday, December 30, 2024.

Geraldine was truly original and very special. Anyone she has met
is woven into her colorful family blanket. No one was a stranger long when she
engaged you in conversation. What she freely delivered to all was her testimony
and truth of a lifetime of service to family, church and community. Born June 14,
1937, to Mattie X Byrd (Momma Matt) and Frank Mason, Geraldine (“Sallie Gal”
as Momma Matt called her) was the youngest of seven children (three brothers and
three sisters). Born on the heel of the Great Depression, times were hard, but the
people (especially the women in her life beginning with Momma Matt, the
Matriarch) who supported and cared for her in those early years brought out the
character and personality which was uniquely hers. In discussing her formative
school years in the Haynesville Colored High School system (before it was
renamed Woodson High School), she only expressed joy in the activity and
memories of her school days. She started playing girls’ basketball as an
elementary/junior high student with the high school girls. So impressive was her
talent that her first pair of tennis shoes was purchased by the school’s principal at
the time. She would often say that she had perfected those shots long before
Michael Jordan. Her activities didn’t stop there. She was a majorette, sang in the
choir (Lord how she loved to sing!) and flourished in home economics since many
ladies in the quarters and surrounding black communities had few choices for
employment other than to be the Help for white families across town. She
remembered how on Sundays Momma Matt had to go to work across town, but
that she and her siblings were still required to take care of their house chores and
then go to church. Upon finishing high school in1956, she attended Grambling
State University for the first time. Again, those school years as she lived near
campus in what she lovingly referred to as the “yellow house” would prove to be
the beginning of her steadfast journey to becoming an Educator.  
 
As life would have its crooks and turns, she left college after a short time only to
return home to join the network of domestic workers from which black livelihoods
depended on. Assuming the role of dutiful daughter, life appeared to have been
following the same patterns of existence as her mother and other female friends
and relatives in the community. However, during this season, a young man by the
name of Andrew J. Coleman “AJ” started pursuing her and eventually went to
Momma Matt to ask for her baby girl’s hand in marriage. In this new role as
housewife and partner, she thrived in starting a family as the soulful beats of the
Civil Rights Movement took hold of the daily conscience of American life. 

A renewed commitment and vow to finish the education she had started was
rekindled and supported by her husband, “AJ”.  It took ten years to complete her
Bachelor and Master’s Degrees commuting almost daily to GSU during the
summers from 1967 to 1977.  I can remember going to class with her sitting there
admiring and watching her enthusiasm for education’s second chance which would
prove to be her life’s calling. For over 50 years, she taught, inspired and even
coerced her students to be more, do more and be better than anyone thinks you can
be.   
Her zeal and zest for getting a good education never waned.  Nor did her cry to
serve God and honor Him with your tithes and offerings.  A mother at United Zion
FWBC, she was a loyal member her entire life. Through all its ups and downs, she
would always pray and ask the Lord to work things out. I know those prayers will
be magnified forever more on high with the chorus of those Saints that have gone
before her. 
So many other things can be said about this Woman of God, but the time on these
pages can’t tell what lasting joy my mother has left with us all. Join us in
celebrating the Heavenly homecoming of its newest guardian angel, Geraldine
“Sallie Gal” Coleman!  
Witnessing her homegoing: children, Anthony J. Coleman (Debbie), Yolanda L.
Coleman, and Darryl W. Coleman; grandchildren, Amanda J. Coleman, Angele A.
Coleman, Tyler D. Coleman, and Wilbert T. “Jay” Lincoln (Yesica); special nieces
and nephews, Dr. Barbara Haynes, Dr. John Talbert Fuller, Jr., Rev. Dr. Greggory
Maddox (Valorie) and Ronald W. Barnes (Cynthia); godchildren, Willie C.
Williams, Vivan D. McKinney, Sylvia H. Presley, Sherry Robinson, John A.
Hampton, Zelda H. Evans, Dean Hampton, Regina Alston, Loretta Monk-White,
Rosemary Kirkindoff, Carolyn H. Tyson, Dava S. Prince, Judy W. Brown,
LaTarsha Doze, Saundreya Ward, Denise Hampton and Megan White; adopted grandchildren, Brock
Tyson (Shani), CeTera Tyson, Aja Prince, Aljessa Prince, Avery Prince, Roderick
Hampton, James Evans, Chad White and Jasper Wortham; three great-
grandchildren; a host of great-nieces, great-nephews, cousins, church family, the
Sassy Diva’s Book Club and friends; hosting her heavenly homecoming, grandson, Brock Anthony Coleman.