Dolores Palmer

Dolores Victoria Martin was born 9/5/1932 in Manhattan to Richard and Menthia Martin. She attended grade school, middle and high schools in Manhattan’s Upper West Side of New York.

She married Walter W. Geter, Jr. in 1948 and together they had six children. They soon moved from Manhattan to Seneca Avenue; the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.

Dolores worked very hard at home, raising and caring for her children. She was a celebrated cook on monumental occasions, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving; she spent long hours straightening heads, greasing the boys’ ashy knees, bathing, and feeding her children, as well as an occasional admonishment to any wayward behaviors.

Dolores was exuberant and loved to laugh! She cherished R&B music – – playing 45’s, dancing with her children and her friends Vernice or Marilyn to Chubby Checker’s Twistin’ or Marvin Gaye’s soul-catching hits. She cherished the female jazz vocalists of the day, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington.

On any given day, Dolores, as her children told, would spontaneously join in with them, trying her hand at “Slug,” “Double-Dutch,” and maybe some Hopscotch. She was so very active – – a spontaneous woman in those years, full of energy and long, loud laughter.

In the mid-60’s she left the Geter household and divorced her husband. She took up residence in the West Bronx. By then she was working for the New York City Transit Authority as a token clerk. There she met Conrad Palmer, also a Transit Authority employee. In 1972, Conrad and Dolores married and moved to the Northeast Bronx, where they remained until their respective retirements.

Throughout those mid-years, Dolores developed a penchant for yarn crafts and produced many elaborate works of crocheted art. Dolores, affectionately known as Dee-Dee, also formed a travel club with her husband Conrad, and together they enjoyed travelling throughout the Caribbean islands. Dolores encouraged her children to embark on world travels as she did, to expand their perspectives and indulge in the wonderful experiences, as well as enjoy the luxury it affords.

After approximately 25 years of civil service Dolores and her husband retired, then purchased a cozy townhome in West Haven, Connecticut. There they continued to live a comfortable retirement lifestyle. However, her husband suddenly passed away in 2002.

Dolores remained in West Haven, Connecticut until 2017, attended to quite regularly by her younger son, Talan. But when her older son Wes moved to Atlanta, she too decided to pack her bags and relocate there to the warm climes of Atlanta, Georgia, in the suburbs near Fayetteville. She maintained her own apartment and drove her little Mini Cooper until the age of 85. She lived not more than 15 minutes away from Wes and his wife Lora. They spent frequent time together, socializing, lunching, chatting, debating politics, (one of her favorite topics), and visiting other family members and/or friends in the Georgia ‘burbs.

Wes and Lora both oversaw her personal and health care. However, in May 2025, Dolores was admitted to the hospital, returned home, then re-admitted to the hospital.

Dolores Palmer succumbed to her illness on June 1, 2025, at the ripe old age of 92.

She is survived by six children, Cheryl Faust, Walter Geter, III, Vanessa Sykes, Shshi Maisa, Victoria Geter, and Talan Oneza as well as five grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren. She will of course be remembered for her whirlwind outgoing nature, her politics, her laughter, her good cooking, and her endearing smile. Many had described Dolores Palmer as “someone you can’t help liking.”

Friends and relatives are invited to celebrate Dolores’s life at Beecher & Bennett Funeral Home, 2300 Whitney Ave., Hamden, Connecticut on Thursday, June 19^th, 2025. A calling hour will be held from 10:00-11:00 a.m., followed by a Time of Remembrance at 11:00. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery, 769 Ella Grasso Blvd., New Haven, Connecticut, where Dolores’s remains will be placed beside her late husband Conrad.