A late-in-life world traveler who once held a pilot’s license, Geraldine “Gerre” Murphy, 88, formerly of Maryville, Missouri, embarked on her final journey August 21, 2024. Surrounded by her three children, she died at Lakeview Village Care Center in Lenexa, Kansas, where she’d been since May 30 with a serious head injury resulting from a fall.
An eager learner with a lifelong passion for reading, Gerre documented by author the 5,000+ books she’d read since age 16. As a wife and mother of two little girls, she went back to college, graduating with highest honors from Northwest Missouri State College in 1965, double-majoring in business education and English. Taking college classes every summer, she earned a master’s degree in English in 1969 and over time, nearly completed a doctorate in education.
Professionally, she taught typing, shorthand, secretarial practice, bookkeeping, general business and later literature for 27 years at North Nodaway High School in Hopkins, Missouri, and became a longtime sponsor of Student Council and Future Business Leaders of America. Not ready to retire, she worked full time until age 70 in her alma mater’s Registrar’s Office, receiving the Tower Award for Outstanding Service and Contributions to the University.
Gerre was a “yellow dog Democrat,” a proud Bearcat and loyal Kansas City Chiefs fan who cheered the team to its first Super Bowl victory in 1970 in New Orleans. A devoted library patron and faithful blood donor, she was a member of the American Association of University Women.
A consummate tanner around the Murphy’s swimming pool, she favored black Russians and merlot, loved precious gems and boosted the U.S. economy dime by dime in casino slots from coast to coast. She walked a bazillion miles during her life, watched her weight like a hawk for 70+ years with size 4 jeans in her closet to prove it, and drove flashy convertibles too fast longer than her family preferred.
At age 77, she started a new chapter, moving to the Kansas City area near her children. Bitten by the travel bug, she toured countless cities in 20+ countries across four continents; beat uterine cancer twice; and joined the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church, enjoying social justice workshops, book discussions and volunteer projects. She loved apartment life at Lakeview Village retirement community, never missed Wheel of Fortune; was an ecstatic great-grandmother, and never stopped saving stray rubber bands around soup cans.
Born Geraldine Ann Busby June 25, 1936, to Byron and Neri (Robertson) Busby, she was the second of four children raised on the family farm near what was Pumpkin Center, Missouri. She started her education in a country schoolhouse and was graduated from Horace Mann High School in Maryville in 1954. She married Marvin Murphy September 16, 1955, and “Murph and Gerre” were a “bonded pair” until his death 57 years later.
Survivors include daughters Marli Murphy, Kansas City, Missouri; and Sue Murphy Andrus, Lenexa, a son born on her birthday, Mike (Gaylene) Murphy, Olathe, Kansas; grandchildren Katy Andrus and Penny Murphy, Lawrence, Kansas, Nick (Lindsey) Andrus, Denver, and Jordan Murphy, Olathe; great-granddaughters Murphy and Emery Andrus, Denver; and nieces, nephews and other relatives.
To honor her express wishes, no memorial service is planned following cremation. Arrangements: Price Funeral Home.
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