Geraldine Pauline Hughes was born in Oklahoma to Sarah Elizabeth Hair and Harry Hughes in 1924. Her mother was on the Dawes Roll certifying membership in the Cherokee Nation. She married Ernest Berry about 1945 in in California. Their son, Richard, was born in Fresno on November 23, 1946. Another son, David, was born in Burney, CA in 1954. Her son Richard died in 1976, and son David in 2006. Ernest and Geri were divorced in 1969. She died in Redding, CA in 1985 of ovarian cancer. At that time she was survived by her son, David and wife Karlicia and their children Vaughn and Valena Berry. Grandson Patrick Berry, child of her son Richard and daughter-in-law, Mary Berry Jeppson.