Sybil Kennedy

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Graveside services for Sybil Burke Geeslin Kennedy, 88, of Largo, Fla., formerly of Donalsonville, Ga., were held Tuesday, Nov. 24, at Friendship Cemetery in Donalsonville with the Rev. Kirk Loyless officiating.

Born in Donalsonville, Ga., on Aug. 5, 1921, Mrs. Kennedy died on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, in Largo, Fla.

Mrs. Kennedy became one of the very first female real estate agents in Atlanta, Ga., and later became an inventor, having created the first form-fitting snap diapers. She later became an assistant buyer at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta, and then head gift buyer at May Cohen’s in Jacksonville, Fla.

In 1965, she moved to Largo, Fla., where she established a highly successful interior decoration business, Sybil Kennedy Interiors, which she ran until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002. She was a long time benefactor of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Girls Club and Home and was often honored for her philanthropy and was widely traveled.

She was preceded in death by her husbands, R.G. Geeslin and Leland Kennedy; and one brother, Charles Burke.

She is survived by two sons, William Gary Geeslin of Loganville, Ga., and Charles Reuben Geeslin of Singapore; one daughter, Cathy Millspaugh of Roswell, Ga.; two sisters, Dot Butcher of Donalsonville and Maxine Neely of Cape Maine, N.J.; six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Evans-Skipper Funeral Home in Donalsonville is in charge of the arrangements.