I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou
Obituary
Gennie Marie Nunley-Thompson, a beloved pillar of the San Francisco Bay Area community, passed away on Thursday, July 11, 2024, in Oakland, California, due to complications from pneumonia. Born on July 28, 1943, in Many, Louisiana, Gennie, as she preferred to be called, graduated from San Francisco’s Polytechnic High. She earned her Associate of Arts degree from San Francisco City College before obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of San Francisco (formerly Lone Mountain College for Women).
Gennie's career included roles as a switchboard operator and supervisor at Pacific Bell, a group-home supervisor for the Catholic Diocese, and nearly 25 years of service as a supervising probation officer with the San Francisco Probation Department. She was recognized as a community leader in the San Francisco Hunters Point Housing Projects and received an award for her services from Governor Deukmejian.
Affectionately known as “Mama,” “Gennie,” or “Mama-Gennie,” she raised her four children in the Catholic faith as a single parent in the Hunters Point housing projects. She believed education was the key to lifting her family out of poverty and made sacrifices to send her children to Catholic and private schools. Gennie also profoundly impacted the lives of many others, including her seven grandchildren (Cimone, Gennie, Jasmine, Celeste, Dominic, Dylan, and Schuyler), her siblings (Ruthie, Exie, Robert Earl, and Angela), numerous group home girls she loved, guided, and counseled (Henriqueta, Anita, Cynthia, Valerie, Francesca, Lori, Monica, and others), and the many probationers she mentored, especially those in the P.O.W.E.R. Program for female San Francisco County probationers with drug and related problems, which she helped create.
Gennie is survived by a loving community of friends and her four children: Francine Anita Anthony, William Daniel Nunley IV, Mark Winston Nunley, and Judge Troy Lynne Nunley, along with their spouses (Thomas Anthony, Terran Nunley, and Susan Lawrence Nunley) and children. She is also survived by her sister Ruthie Bell, her brother Robert Earl Bush, her sister Angela Wright, and numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins. She was preceded in death by her husband Isaiah Thompson, her ex-husband William Daniel Nunley, Jr., her mother Zamer Wright, her father James Wesley, and her sister Exie Henderson. Gennie’s legacy will endure in the hearts and minds of everyone she touched, as well as those she inspired from afar.
Gallery
Videos
Memory wall
Favorites
Donate
Together, let us continue the legacy of compassion and kindness that Gennie embodied throughout their life.
