Homer resident Mrs. Geraldine Billotte, 83, died Monday, July 1, 2013, at South Peninsula Hospital Long Term Care in Homer. 

Mrs. Billotte was born July 7, 1929, in Syracuse, N.Y. She graduated high school and furthered her education by attending and graduating from beauty school in Tucson, Ariz. In 1968, Geraldine moved from Tucson to Alaska, where she lived in Fairbanks from 1968 to 1970. In 1970, she moved to Anchorage, where she lived for six years. In 1976, she moved to Homer where she has lived ever since. While living in Homer she worked for George’s Storage from 1976 to 1983. In 1983, she and her husband opened up Kachemak Boots and Shoes until she retired in 1993.  

The family wrote, “Geraldine enjoyed all of her customers at the Kachemak Boots and Shoes Store. ‘Speak up, I can’t hear you’ was her signature saying when you came to her store.”

Her husband wrote, “Geraldine was the only person I knew who would drive her Subaru to the store, do her shopping, come out and find the car with no engine and no tires, but still drive it home.” 

She was preceded in death by her parents, Donald and Elsie Riehlman.

She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Leonard Billotte of Homer; daughter, Terry Billotte of Homer; son, Mike Billotte of Terra Haute, Ind.; brother, Peter Riehlman, and wife, Peggy, of Magalia, Calif.; nephews, Frank of New York, Mark of California, Troy of California and Donald George of Oregon; niece, Ann of California; granddaughters, Tina Sanders of Tuscan, Ariz., and Tiffany, Asheley, Bear and Nikka, all of Terra Haute. 

Arrangements were made by Peninsula Memorial Chapel and Crematory.