OBITUARY Frances Geraldine Keeton Wiegman November 15, 1922 – October 6, 2018 Frances Geraldine Keeton Wiegman (Gerrie) November 15, 1922 – October 6, 2018 Frances (Gerrie) Wiegman stepped into heaven October 6, 2018. Born in Bethany, Oklahoma in 1922, she passed away in Ormond Beach, Florida, October 6, 2018, at the age of 95. She is predeceased by her husband of 61 years, Floyd Miller Wiegman, her son, Fredrick (Rick) Wayne Wiegman and a daughter, Madelyn Jeanne Gibbs.
She is survived by a daughter, Marilyn Kay Duff and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews in Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Oregon and Florida. She grew up in Bethany, Oklahoma with her parents, Chester Winfield Keeton and Thelma Irene (Emerson) Keeton and her brother Grant Winfield Keeton. Upon her marriage to Floyd in 1940, she moved to Claude, Texas, with her new husband.
There they joined Floyd’s parents, Frederick Joseph and Elizabeth Leota (Miller) Wiegman as wheat farmers. In the early 1960’s, the family moved back to Bethany, Oklahoma, where she owned and managed Mother Goose Nursery School, and Floyd worked as an electrician for Civil Service. Upon Floyd’s retirement, they settled in Orlando, Florida, and both became Realtors in the early 1970’s, the year before DisneyWorld opened.
She sold real estate in Orlando until 2000, when she retired. Floyd passed in 2001, and Gerrie sold their home on Clear Lake in Orlando, and moved to Webb City, Missouri, to be near her daughter, Jeanne Gibbs. There, she lived in a house on the Gibbs farm near the main house.
She was very happy in this environment and suddenly found herself with quite a few new “girlfriends”. She was free of working, caregiving and had moments to be free to enjoy her days. During this time, she even traveled to Switzerland with her cousin, Maureen Emerson, who was a librarian at a college in Switzerland, which was associated with the Nazarene universities.
In 2011, Gerrie returned to Florida. She settled in Ormond Beach to be near her daughter, Kay Duff. She first moved to Madison Glen, a new senior apartment complex.
As her health declined, she moved to Riviera Assisted Living where she lived until August, 2018. After a fall and other health problems, she was transferred to Indigo Manor under the care of Halifax Hospice palliative care. From there, she lived with one foot in this world, and one foot in the next.
She became known to the staff and residents as “the singer” since she mostly communicated through song to express her wants and needs. In addition to creatively made up songs, she also spent a lot of her time singing hymns and nursery rhymes. Once again, she endeared the staff to her with her positive, sweet ways.
Although, we will miss her, the family realizes that she is where she desired to go for the last few months. She was an inspiration to not only her family, but also to those near her. At Riviera, she walked everyday about a half of mile after her meals.
Most of the residents were younger than she, and they were amazed at her ability to “keep going” at her advanced age (so were we). The days that I stopped by Riviera when she was walking, I would join her – every time she was singing hymns. She spoke to me many times about her younger days with her parents, her brother and her cousins.
She was always looking forward to seeing her parents and all her heavenly family again. Today, I envision her having a huge reunion with those she has missed for so long. Welcome home, Mom.
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