Geraldine S. Caughman, 78, of Wethersfield, beloved wife of Bill Caughman, died Saturday, July 7, 2012 at her home. She was born September 12, 1933 in New Britain, daughter of Anthony and Helen (Orzel) Garro. She attended the College of New Rochelle and later, the Katharine Gibbs School in New York City. She continued to live and work in New York for the American Rocket Society. While in New York, she met her future husband, Bill, who was serving in the military nearby. They were married at Fort Totten, Long Island in a military ceremony. Upon completion of Bill's military service, they moved to Connecticut. Gerry was a proud homemaker who lovingly raised two sons and a daughter. Her family was the most important thing in her life and she found great joy in cooking and sewing, and excelled at both. She was a communicant of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Wethersfield. Later she served as a tour guide at the Old State House in Hartford, and then joined the Capitol tour guide program in 1980. With a passion for history, she immersed herself in research of the many stories of the Capitol, its history and its artifacts, which greatly enhanced her tours. The visitors thoroughly enjoyed them, sending her numerous letters of thanks. Subsequently, Gerry was attracted to the Capitol's 170-piece battle flag collection during the 1980s when the Capitol building was undergoing restoration and the flags needed a caretaker. A love affair was kindled. She embarked on a four-year long, arduous task of evaluating each flag, photographing, cataloging, marking and writing condition reports for each flag. With so much flag work going on, Gerry became affectionately known around the Capitol as "The Flag Lady". She diligently studied the various conservation methods and procedures, met with many conservators including the Smithsonian, the National Park Service and private companies. She also reviewed potential conservators and visited their labs in Washington, New Orleans, Indianapolis, New York and Massachusetts. During these years, owing to heightened interest in the Civil War, many outside requests for flag information and pictures were received at the Capitol, all of which were referred to Gerry for a response. She realized that many of the flags would never be seen by others since they were in such poor condition and conservation was extremely expensive. Thus was conceived the idea of writing a book with the pictures and the history of the flags and the men who carried them. Gerry spent years in our State Library and countless other libraries researching extensively. She traveled to all battlefields that Connecticut men fought on during the Civil War. The result was a 350-page book about our 110 Civil War flags and a 175-page book about our 60 flags from the world wars and contemporary conflicts. The books were copyrighted in the name of the Capitol as her gift to Connecticut and in honor of those who have lost or risked their lives to protect our nation. Through all of this, she continued a very active tour guide schedule. In March of 2011, she was diagnosed with a health problem, which required that she retire from her beloved Capitol tours and the battle flag program. Gerry lost her loves at the Capitol and the Capitol lost a dedicated and a tireless volunteer. Besides her husband Bill, she is survived by three children, son David Caughman and his wife Sherry of Canton, GA, daughter Debby Hans of The Plains, VA and son, John Caughman of Tavernier, FL. She was blessed with five grandchildren, Christopher Hans, Rebecca (Hans) Barwikowski and her husband Alex, Scott Hans, Nicholas Caughman and Alex Caughman. She is also survived by her brother, Anthony Garro and his wife Judy, of New Britain, a sister, Jacqueline Fett and her husband Henry of St. Louis, MO and a son-in-law, Richard Hans of Berlin. The funeral will be Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10:30 a.m. in St. Paul's Lutheran Church , 371 Wolcott Hill Rd. Wethersfield, with the Rev. R. Maureen Hawksley officiating. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford. Visiting hours will be Wednesday, July 11th, 4-7 p.m. at The Dillon-Baxter Funeral Home, 1276 Berlin Tpke. Wethersfield. Memorial gifts in her memory may be made to: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 371 Wolcott Hill Rd. Wethersfield, CT 06109. To share a memory with the family, please visit, www.dillonbaxter.com