Georgie Duffy Kear

Welcome to a toast (not a roast) celebrating 94 years of Georgie Duffy Kear. Georgie passed away on August 25, 2025, in Alpharetta, Georgia. She was born in New Bern, North Carolina on October 5, 1930, to the late Henry Bryan Duffy and Helen Johnson Duffy.

If you were to look up the definition of “daddy’s girl” there would be Georgie grinning with her hazel eyes shining. Their home was on the Neuse River and her daddy shared his love of fishing and the beach with her. From her mother she learned to speak her mind and that her opinions mattered. Georgie graduated from high school at Peace College in Raleigh and found the rules there to be a bit stifling. At her graduation she told one of the staff, “I just want you to know how happy I am that I’m leaving”. Typical Georgie! Both her parents instilled in her the importance of being smart with money.

Following high school, she attended the University of South Carolina. After a couple of years, she was ready for an adventure and in the 50’s being an airline stewardess was highly touted as a glamourous career. She was hired by Capital Airlines (later merged with United Airlines) and based in Alexandria, Virginia. She was living her best life in the sky for about two years. It was in Alexandria that she met her future husband. That’s enough about him. She worked mainly as a secretary or admin and retired from the Kellen Company which managed trade organizations and professional associations.

Georgie was a loving and devoted mama bear to her two daughters. Watch out neighborhood bullies or unfair teachers! There are so many tales regaling her impressive sense of humor. She loved the beach, fried shrimp, TJ Maxx, and Josh Groban. She was so very independent and when she lost her eyesight the last two years of her life it was an incredible blow and difficult to accept. She used these little eye wipes to ease the itching and decided to call them pods. This morphed into her deciding to call most everything a pod just for fun. She was such a fashionista and even when she could not see she still wanted to go shopping. Georgie was truly young at heart and was not pleased if someone dared to ask her age. She would want you to know that she had a boyfriend, Roger Seifert, for over 30 years until his death three years ago. Together they loved to fish and go dancing.

Georgie is survived by her daughters April Seiden and Nancy Blum, both of Alpharetta, Georgia as well as granddaughters Julia Seiden of Charleston, South Carolina and Nina Blum of Alpharetta, Georgia. In addition, she is survived by nieces Phyllis Carpenter of New Bern, North Carolina and Helen Hollister of Dallas, Texas. Her nephews include Bryan Carlin of Hendersonville, Tennessee and David Carlin of Louisville, Kentucky. She is also survived by great nieces and nephews and their families. She was preceded in death by her sisters Helen Margaret Duffy Gaskins and Kathleen Bryan Duffy Carlin.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at Cotten Funeral Home.

Cotten Funeral Home is honored to serve the family and friends of Georgie Duffy Kear.