Geraldine O'Riley Lloyd's Obituary
Geraldine O’Riley Lloyd, 80, passed away on June 16, 2024, at home in Frederick, Maryland. Geraldine was born on October 21, 1943, in Durham, North Carolina. Raised in Northern Virginia, she was a graduate of JEB Stuart High School and attended Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia.
Survivors include her children, Erin Kristie Guyton (partner Bryan Waltrip) and Sean Kimble Ingraham (wife Shelly), and a grandson, Seth Lloyd Ingraham. In addition to her immediate family, she is fondly remembered by her best friend, Kate Poindexter; stepdaughter, Angela Chase; and the Waltrip twins, Finn and Isabel.
As an actress, artist, author, and activist, Geraldine’s many years were spent exploring and expressing her creativity.
After studying art in college, she raised her children while participating in community arts events, including Hagerstown’s Art in The Park, where she delighted customers with art created on the spot using an ink pad and a child’s fingerprints. She was also active in community theater and was a member of the Fredericktowne Players and the Potomac Players in Hagerstown.
In the 1980s, she became active in the Frederick Toastmasters Club. As a result of her talent for public speaking (and a video produced by young filmmaker Robbie Chafitz), she entered and won a contest which awarded her the opportunity to co-host the national television show Hour Magazine with Gary Collins.
In the 1990s, after losing her voice to throat cancer, she entered an intensive period of making art throughout her living and working spaces. She created a performance art gallery in her then-home, Key West, Florida, as a testimony to the six Greek goddesses, and her home on Third Street in Frederick was featured in the book “House of Belief” as an example of the home as a healing canvas of recovery. She participated in performance art and film projects with local filmmaker Salyer McLaughlin.
Geraldine transformed an old Mercedes into an elaborate art car, “Unchain My Love”, which was featured in the film “Automorphosis” by Harrod Blank, the country’s most well-known art car artist. After she exhibited her car at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, it was purchased by Daimler AG and is on permanent display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
She has exhibited her art extensively in both Key West and Frederick, including a 30-year retrospective in 2019 at Frederick Community College which included 12 large paintings, each exploring the original founding principles of the 12 Step Recovery Program.
Geraldine’s North Carolina family—on both sides—grew tobacco, and she understood the power of telling her story and journey as activist and author. She wrote and filmed the documentary film “Dreamstealers,” which she presented in schools and which is distributed internationally to educate children about the dangers of tobacco and addiction. A contributor to the organization “Tobacco Free Kids,” her story was shared by Maryland Senator Benjamin Cardin on the floor of the Senate in 2009, in support of passing The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. She has also publicly spoken in support of death with dignity legislation.
As a columnist at the Frederick News-Post from 2008-2013, she used her creativity to offer hope to others by sharing her experiences with cancer and spirituality. Her columns have been published into the book “Cancer Calling.” She also has two other memoirs available on Amazon: “The Goddess Groove” and “Love in the Time of Terrorists.”
A celebration of life service will take place Monday, July 15, at The Delaplaine Arts Center, 40 S. Carroll Street, in Frederick. The family will provide refreshments and greet visitors from 12:30 – 2:00. The service will begin at 2:00.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Frederick Health Hospice or the American Cancer Society.
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