Geraldine Portugal Baake Resident of Lafayette Surrounded by family members, loved ones, friends and wonderful caregivers, longtime Lafayette resident and homemaker Geraldine Portugal Baake died of age-related causes on June 11. She was 83. Gerry was born in Coney Island Hospital in New York City on July 23, 1924 to Helen and Jerome Portugal, and grew up in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The experience gave her a strong sense of values that lasted throughout her life, and she was always careful to appreciate everything she had. Her parents did all they could to provide for her and her sister Gloria as they grew up in New York's Washington Heights district, and she had many stories of those times. During World War Two, she worked in a defense plant, inspecting radio tubes for aircraft equipment. Gerry met and married husband Charles in 1946, and they had two children, Valerie and Tom. When Charlie got a job with San Francisco-based Miller Freeman Publications in 1954, the family moved west. Gerry loved the Bay Area, and was a perennial and genial host for a steady stream of relatives, friends and Charlie's business associates. She led folks on tours of all the interesting and beautiful places, from small Chinatown restaurants to Napa Valley wineries to the top of Mt. Diablo. Charlie's job with an international publishing company led them to travel the world extensively, and she enjoyed bringing back gifts, photos and stories for her many friends and relatives. She "never met a stranger." In the late 1970s and early 1980s Gerry was a volunteer with several local agencies, including Volunteers in Education and the Contra Costa County Volunteer Bureau. She counseled troubled youths and was always available to help in any way she could. She is survived by husband Charlie, sister Gloria, daughter Valerie and her fiancé Kunio Narasaki, son Tom, granddaughter Andrea and her husband Eldon Halliburton and her daughter Elaine Collen, grandson Daniel Franke and his wife Jessica and son Charlie, caregiver Lose Hiliau and many loving friends, neighbors and people who will always remember this remarkable woman. Services will be held at 12 noon on Friday, June 20 at St. Anselm's Church in Lafayette. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to Hospice of the East Bay, 3470 Buskirk Ave., Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 (925) 887-5678 or to the charity of your choice..
Published in Contra Costa Times on June 14, 2008