“I just was amazed at her and her knowledge,” Deloris recalled. “I always sat beside her at the meetings so I could soak up her volunteerism.”

Geneva was born November 3, 1933, in Bentonville, Virginia, to John Henry Brown and Georgia Morris Brown. She married Palmer Nelson Jackson Sr. in 1953, and they shared 61 years together. [10]

Faith, family and community remained intertwined throughout her life. Geneva was a devoted member of Zion Baptist Church and was involved with organizations including the Virginia Association for Family and Community Education, the Shelter for Abused Women, the Josephine Improvement Association and the Johnson-Williams Reunion Association. [10]

Her ties to Johnson-Williams stretched back decades. In 1961, Geneva’s name appeared among participants in an adult home economics class at Johnson-Williams High School. [2] Decades later, cooking for others would become one of the most recognizable parts of her life.

Johnson-Williams remained part of Geneva’s story. More than 50 years later, she appeared in coverage of a reunion for the school. [3] Deloris sometimes accompanied her to those reunions. Even after decades of friendship, Deloris still referred to her as “Mrs. Jackson.”

Their friendship had grown through another important part of Geneva’s life: FISH of Clarke County.

Deloris joined the FISH board in the 1990s and deliberately took the seat beside Mrs. Jackson.

Deloris had already begun volunteering, but Geneva became an example.

“She did teach me how to volunteer,” Deloris said. “I just learned a lot from her. I just learned how to be a good volunteer.”

That influence was not limited to one friendship or one organization. Across different parts of Geneva’s life, people found themselves drawn into the work alongside her.

Long before Geneva became known for catering and baking throughout Clarke County, food was part of her family’s rhythms. She remembered spending Saturdays and Sundays cooking around church, preparing fried chicken, asparagus, potato salad, greens, cakes and pies. [1]

Her reputation grew from church suppers and bake sales to weddings, funerals, luncheons and other special occasions. She later operated her own catering business, G.J. Cooks. [1]

By 2012, Geneva had been competing at the Clarke County Fair for more than 25 years.

The shelves in her home held hundreds of ribbons for pies, cakes, jelly, homemade mustard, rolls, applesauce and other foods. She told the Winchester Star that she had earned 13 Best in Show awards. [1] Geneva put the joy she found in cooking simply: “It is good. I love cooking. I like to cook for a whole lot of people.” [1] She became particularly known for her ham biscuits, while cakes and catered dinners she donated to charity auctions could draw bids in the hundreds of dollars, sometimes reaching as high as $2,000. [1]

At the Clarke County Farmers’ Market, that love of cooking also helped form one of Geneva’s close friendships. Sheryl Reid had known Geneva for years, but their friendship deepened through their time at the market. Seeing Geneva juggling orders, customers and sales, Sheryl offered to help at the table.

From then on, they worked side by side nearly  every Saturday from May through October.

For 21 years, Geneva sold baked goods at the Clarke County Farmers’ Market before retiring after its 2016 season. Her relationship with the market did not end there. [5]

“We would have a ball at the market,” Sheryl remembered. “We would talk to everybody.” When Geneva tried to pay her for helping, Sheryl refused. “You can’t pay me for having this much fun.”

For Geneva, feeding people and caring for them were rarely far apart.

In 2017, Geneva agreed to judge the first Geneva Jackson Pie-Baking Contest on one condition: the proceeds would benefit The Laurel Center. The tradition continued, and by 2023, Geneva was still returning to the contest bearing her name. That year, it raised $661 for The Laurel Center. [5]

Geneva’s fresh apple cake became another way her cooking supported the community.

Sheryl Reid remembers the cake being auctioned year after year to benefit the Clarke County Education Foundation, sometimes being purchased, donated back and sold again. The year Geneva received the Richard Lewis Achievement Award, proceeds from the cake were designated for a scholarship in her honor. Sheryl remembers the auction eventually raising about $14,000, enough to establish an endowed scholarship bearing Geneva’s name.

Geneva made sure the tradition would outlive her. Months before she died, she shook her finger at Sheryl and said one word: “Cakes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sheryl told her. “I’ll take care of the cakes.”

Sheryl has kept that promise, baking Geneva’s recipe herself.

Food also became a way to support other causes.

In 1997, Geneva contributed a dinner for eight to a benefit auction for Help With Housing. [6] In 2002, one of her hams was among the contributions to a Clarke County 4-H Dinner and Auction. [7] In 2008, she catered a reception honoring FISH volunteers while serving on the organization’s board. [8]

“Geneva was a hero in Blue Ridge Hospice.” – Mary Jane Lee

“We laughed a lot,” Sheryl said. “We were just buddies.”

But beneath that humor was the same concern for others that shaped so much of Geneva’s life.

But food was only one way Geneva cared for people. Her connection to Blue Ridge Hospice put her alongside patients and families during some of their most vulnerable moments.

Deloris remembers what that looked like.

“She sat with people,” Deloris said. “She was a caregiver to sit with people, and that was her way of paying her rent to live on Earth.”

Sheryl Reid remembers Geneva talking about serving as a companion, staying with patients so their caregivers could step away to go to the grocery store, run an errand or simply have a break. Geneva was proud of that work, Sheryl said, but careful about the privacy of the people she served.

Sheryl remembers one principle Geneva shared: always ask permission before touching or hugging a patient. Otherwise, Geneva offered few details about the people she cared for. “She respected them too much for that,” Sheryl said.

Former Blue Ridge Hospice volunteer and nurse Mary Jane Lee also remembers Geneva as part of the organization’s history.

Mary Jane recalled Blue Ridge Hospice’s early years as a time when volunteers played an especially important role in caring for patients at home. There were not yet all the disciplines that would eventually make up a hospice team.

“There was nobody else going into the home but us. And we did it all.”

Sometimes doing it all meant meeting needs beyond medical care. Mary Jane remembered volunteers preparing food for patients, and Geneva was among the people she remembered from that work.

Her description was simple: “Geneva was a hero in Blue Ridge Hospice.”

Deloris remembers Geneva contributing food for the team, too. “Every time they had something, she would fix the food,” Deloris said. “She was a caterer, so she would fix the food and donate it also.”

For all that Geneva gave to her community, the people closest to her remember details that never made it into newspaper articles or lists of accomplishments. Geneva often wore denim, clogs and knee socks. At Geneva’s funeral, Deloris came dressed the same way. “I wanted to be like her,” Deloris said.

Sheryl Reid remembers another side of Geneva, one that did not always show up in stories about her service.

“I think they missed how funny she was,” Sheryl said.

Geneva had a dry sense of humor that she did not reveal to everyone. At the farmers’ market, she and Sheryl would quietly “cackle” over things no one around them understood. Sheryl also remembers Geneva having a way of keeping her in check. With a shake of her finger, she would remind her, “Sheryl, God don’t like ugly.”

“She deeply, deeply cared about people,” Sheryl said. Geneva’s instinct was to look at what was in front of her and ask, “What can I make better?”

And as Deloris put it, “It’s easy to say good things about good people.”

Perhaps Geneva’s impact is best measured not by the number of organizations she served or the recognition she received, but by what she left in other people.

Deloris sat beside her at FISH meetings because she wanted to learn from her.

Sheryl continues making the cakes Geneva asked her to carry on.

And at Blue Ridge Hospice, Mary Jane Lee remembers her as a hero.

• [1] Lauralee McClintock, “Cooking — Geneva Jackson’s Gift,” Winchester Star, March 21, 2012, p. 21.
• [2] “Night Classes in Home Ec Set in Clarke,” Winchester Evening Star, September 29, 1961, p. 3.
• [3] Johnson-Williams reunion coverage, Winchester Star, July 8, 2013, p. 12.
• [4] “Make These Prize-Winning Recipes,” Winchester Star, August 18, 2010, p. 17.
• [5] “Geneva Jackson Pie-Baking Contest,” Winchester Star, June 27, 2023, p. 5.
• [6] “Auction to Benefit Help With Housing Is Sunday,” Winchester Star, May 16, 1997, p. 4.
• [7] Clarke County 4-H Dinner & Auction, Winchester Star, April 18, 2002, p. 15.
• [8] Val Van Meter, “FISH Will Honor Its Many Volunteers,” Winchester Star, November 21, 2008, p. 25.
• [9] “Farmers’ Market Cake-Baking Contest to Benefit The Laurel Center,” Winchester Star, October 15, 2021, p. 14.
• [10] “Geneva Brown Jackson,” Enders & Shirley Funeral Homes & Crematory, 2026.
• [11] Winchester Star, March 21, 2012, p. 7. Article documenting Geneva Jackson’s community volunteering, including patient care for Blue Ridge Hospice and her belief that volunteering was how she paid her “rent” for living on Earth.