The daughter of William Ivo and Dora Blandford Thompson, Mary Edna was born Feb. 22, 1905, in St. Joseph, Ky., one of their 10 children. She received her early education at St. Frances Academy in Owensboro and later attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy. At the age of 16, Mary Edna entered the novitiate and on March 20, 1922, following a six‑month postulancy, she received the Ursuline habit and the name Sister Geraldine. Her sister Ursula entered at the same time and they shared the same investment date. Ursula was given the name Sister Mary Vincent.
Prepared for the teaching apostolate, Sister Geraldine was assigned first to St. Catherine School in New Haven, Ky., where she taught the primary grades. She next was the primary teacher at Holy Cross School in Loretto, Ky. Her later assignments took her to the various Ursuline schools in Nebraska, where she taught 13 years and to Seven Holy Founders School in Affton, Mo., where she taught for three years. During these years she taught the fifth through the eighth grades, then she returned to Kentucky, where she continued teaching students in those grades in the various parochial schools staffed by the Ursuline Sisters. Sister Geraldine attended both Brescia College in Owensboro, and Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.
Sister Geraldine’s failing health caused her to return to Mount Saint Joseph in 1973 and there she lived peacefully for nearly 10 years. She and her three Ursuline siblings were together from time to time. Sister Geraldine died on August 25, 1983, after suffering intensely for five months. Sister Ann Vincentia Abell had died earlier that same day. On August 27, a double funeral was held with Father Bernard Barnes, MSJ chaplain, as celebrant and homilist of the funeral Mass. Sister Geraldine was laid to rest in the convent cemetery. Among her survivors was her sister, Sister Mary Ivo. Sisters Mary Vincent and Theodore had preceded her in death.