Georgia Sharon Gardner

Georgia Sharon Gardner, a fiercely independent, intelligent and informed woman of many talents and a true force to be reckoned with, died of congestive heart failure and metastatic renal cell carcinoma on July 31st, 2025, at Riverview Health & Rehabilitation Center in Columbus, OH, where she had entered hospice care three weeks prior. She was 75.

Born in New Orleans, LA on September 21, 1949, Georgia grew up in Columbus, OH, the daughter of Mary Wine Hunt and Kenneth Raleigh Gardner. As a young woman, Mary won a local singing contest at Valley Dale and often sang to Georgia when she was a child – including songs of the era like You Are My Sunshine – which Georgia passed on to her own daughters in time. Georgia’s parents divorced while she was in Jr. High school, so she moved between their respective homes frequently throughout high school and spent much of her time at the homes of both sets of grandparents, the Wine family at 508 Tibet Road and the Gardner family home, built by Georgia’s grandfather Gardner, at 1836 Stratford Way in Eastgate. Grandfather Gardner also built the wooden booths at the well-known Johnson’s Ice Cream location in Bexley as well.

During high school, Georgia was a regular participant in Junior Achievement and later pointed to it as the way she learned about business and finance. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Ohio State University in 1975, where she served as a student representative. She joined General Electric Credit Corporation in 1979, where she learned the collection, skip tracing and repossession skills required to find debtors and encourage them to settle their debts. She moved to the role of Collection Manager at Weltman, Weinberg and Associates in 1982, and CheckRite in 1987. At that time, she was also very much into the local music scene in Columbus, often seen at shows including the Dogz, Willie Pooch, and attended and supported many a Community Festival in Goodale Park, where she always volunteered to work Security for the Festival.

In 1988 she moved to LaSalle, IL with her partner Douglas Brann, where she continued to work in collections and volunteer her time to Junior Achievement, until her decision to return to Ohio in 1991. There she continued to work as a skip tracer and asset investigator, but this time she decided to pursue this work as a self-employed independent contractor.

Around the same time, she was asked by a friend, who knew Georgia loved to work with her hands and was proficient in crochet, knitting and sewing, to make clothes for concrete porch geese. This was an odd but wonderful new beginning for her, and for the next thirty years, Georgia owned and operated DecoDressups, a craft boutique with both an online (Etsy) and brick-and-mortar presence in many local Ohio (Reynoldsburg, Pickerington, Powell, Hebron) and Amish Country craft stores, which sold many hand-made items, from goose, bear and dog clothes, to photo albums, and for a short time, laptop bags. This business became Georgia’s path to independence and permitted her to move away from the collections field which understandably grew tiresome. She took much pride in making high-quality items, and her attention to detail, and fairness in pricing at all of her locations, was very important to her. Over the years, she not only sewed nearly daily for her business, she also made many donation items – for newborn babies and blankets for shelter animals.

Georgia loved animals – sometimes more than humans! Her cats Rabbit, Pumpkin and Charlie kept us all company in the 1980s and 1990s, Wally and Buster the dogs in the 1990s & 2000s, and more recently her cats included CeCe, Black Cat, Cappy, Elfie, Twosie, Willy, and many others too numerous to name. Georgia never met a stray cat (or raccoon or opossum!) that she wouldn’t feed or try to help in some way, and the local strays always seemed to find their way to her house, wherever she lived.

Georgia was extremely well read, and interested in politics, feminism, one’s right to be informed about their own bodies, and to maintain personal control over decisions concerning their bodies. She passed this along to her daughters as well, who are both grateful for her progressive and insightful yet practical approach to sexuality and health.

Georgia was a lover of local history and had a near perfect memory of places and maps throughout Franklin County and beyond. She lived in many Columbus neighborhoods throughout the years, from Merion Village and Clintonville to a stint in Reynoldsburg and Pickerington during her daughter Jessica’s high school years. Georgia was proud of her friends and family and kept nearly every piece of memorabilia (cards and notes), probably since 1960!

Georgia was married three times, including to Patrick (Pat) Faber, Michael (Mike) Eggleston, and Charles (Rick) Rife. Georgia is preceded in death by her parents, as well as her older sister Sandra Somervell. Georgia is survived by her two daughters, Jordana (Joey) Faber and Jessica (Gardner-Brann) Brann, a stepdaughter, Elysia (Faber) Friend, her grand-daughter Jamie Faber, great grandson Jayden Faber, and by her former partner, Douglas R. Brann, with whom she had a long and enduring relationship and friendship.

Per Georgia’s wishes, a small and informal Celebration of Life will be held at Whetstone Park in Columbus OH on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 5pm for her family and friends, at the open-air Shelter in the lower area of the park. Attendees are invited to share their memories of Georgia. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Columbus Humane Society or a non-profit animal welfare organization of your choice.