Geraldine was born in Asheboro, NC on June 8, 1929 to Creola and Elzia Wiley. "Deeny-Peeny", as she was called by her parents, spent much of her early childhood being raised in Asheboro, NC. She loved to tell it, she was a feisty and outgoing young person. As a young girl, Geraldine eagerly worked with her family to harvest the crops and animals that populated her family's farm. She graduated from Greensboro Dudley High School in 1949. With plans to become a public school teacher, she attended Bennett College, a historically black college for women. She graduated in 1953 with a major in education. That same year, in a ceremony held in her parent's backyard, she married James Campt. In 1954, they moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she started her career as a K-3 teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. In 1961, she became the mother of her only child, David. Geraldine enjoyed sewing and making jewelry in her spare time. She retired from teaching in the Detroit Public Schools in 1986. She and James moved to Stoneville, NC where they could be close to her father and stepmother, Elzia and Leoner Wiley and James's mother, Gladys Carter Campt. As retired elders, she and James continued to travel, sometimes in their trailer and sometimes using their timeshares and often joining their son, David.Back in her home state as a retiree, Geraldine found a new outlet for her educational talents by becoming a Sunday School teacher at St. Stephens United Methodist Church, Madison, NC. For a time, she was very involved in the Order of the Eastern Star.
Geraldine is survived by James (whom she alternately called "the love of her life" and "the sweetest man in the world"), her son; David (whom she called "my precious"), her cousins; Bryiant and Carrie Headen, her sister-in-law; Ernestine Campt Muhammed, brother-in-law; Douglas Campt, nieces, nephews, and the Woolfolks.