Dorothy Geraldine (Armstrong) Overby

Dorothy Geraldine Armstrong (Bessellieu) Overby, 92, died at home Sunday, May 16, 2021. Born on October 29, 1928 in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was the eldest of three children. She has joined her mother and father, Elizabeth Pauline Hamilton Armstrong (Wilmington, NC) and Orville Elbert Armstrong (Galveston, TX), her brother, Grant Wesley Armstrong (Waxhaw, NC), her first husband and the father of her girls, Thomas Edward Bessellieu, Jr. (Wilmington, NC), her second husband, Samuel Henry Overby, Jr (Snow Hill, NC) and a much-loved grandson, Matthew Owen Peterson (Wilmington, NC).
She attended Appalachian College and majored in Business. She was a strong and independent woman well before “The Women’s Movement”.  Working at North Carolina National Bank in Wilmington for many years, she was promoted and transferred to Raleigh, NC when banking elevated the process from hand counting and paper files to computer entry. She was instrumental in the opening of the NCNB Computer Center in Raleigh, NC.  
It was while working in Raleigh she met and married Samuel Henry Overby, Jr (1970), and relocated to Snow Hill, NC.  She enjoyed her new career as the Insurance Manager for Greene County Health Care until she decided it was time for her to retire at age 75. She then moved to Kinston to be close to family.
She is survived by her daughters, Margaret Denise Bessellieu (Wilmington, NC), Lucinda Bessellieu Minges and son-in-law, Hoyt Alvin Minges, Jr. (Kinston), four grandchildren, James Michael Peterson II and Margaret Elizabeth Peterson, (Wilmington), Justin Rhem Kilpatrick and his wife, Suzanne (Shelley) Kilpatrick (Wilmington, NC) and Phillip Andrew Kilpatrick (Snow Hill, NC), 2 great-grandchildren, Gracynne Boyette Peterson (Raleigh, NC) and the “apple of her eye”, Matthew Allen Kilpatrick (MAK) (Kinston, NC). She is also survived by her beloved younger sister, Nancy Armstrong Oswald (Greenville, NC)
“Gerri” as she was lovingly called since birth, had become a very private person in recent years, as her dementia progressed. She requested no service, and we will honor her wishes. 
Much heartfelt appreciation is extended to her devoted caregiver, Patsy Mercer, her steadfast friend, Sonoko Humphries, Community Home Hospice, Angie Lacross, Heather Houston, Sandra Matza and her favorite doctor ever, Dr. Rupert Jilcott.
To honor her memory, we ask that you make a special effort to do something nice for someone you know today, perform a random act of kindness for someone you do not know and say a special prayer for someone with which you may not enjoy an amiable relationship. She’d like that.