Alison Daly Gerard, 93 years old, died peacefully Feb. 24, 2026, at her home at Meadowburn Farm, Vernon, N.J., surrounded by family.
She was the beloved wife of C. H. Coster Gerard (d. 2012) for 54 years. Alison was the dearly loved mother of five children: Charles, Alison, Daniel (Olivia), Christopher (Laurie), and Emily (Richard Sloan), grandmother of Philip (Rachel), Loughran (Skyler), Alan, Helen, and Claire Potter, and Danny, Bea, William, Charlie, and John Gerard, and great grandmother of Hazel, Dorothy, Emory, Elvis, and Donovan. She also leaves her sisters-in-law Stuart Daly and Maria Teresa Train, and numerous Gerard and Daly nieces and nephews.
Alison grew up in Fairfield, Conn., the seventh child of Col. and Mrs. Paul G. Daly, and fond sibling of Madeleine, Paul, Michael, Bevin, Daniel, Roy, and Dermot, all of whom predeceased her. She was a spirited practical-joking youngest sister, enjoying the farming and equestrian aspects of her parents’ home in Greenfield Hill, before graduating from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Conn., and Manhattanville College in New York City and Purchase, N.Y. She followed her husband to Shreveport, La., for eight years before they moved back to Fairfield then New York City and then Vernon, N.J. She was committed to her husband above all and children, and to volunteer tutoring young children mainly at the former St. Cecilia Parish School in Harlem.
A crack shot in her youth, she enjoyed into her old age gardening, pruning, birdwatching and, with her husband, walking and maintaining the woods and trails at Meadowburn. She attended daily mass for much of her life and enjoyed reading, especially mystery and detective stories. A person of strong views, prickly yet charismatic embodiment of her tough and literate Daly heritage, she preferred the underdogs in life. Her sympathy and care for the widowed, infirm, or lost (as well as her humor) often exceeded her strong moral convictions. She had little time for pretense, arrogance, or cant.
In recent years she came to be close to Rosemarie Johnson, a pillar of strength, whom the family thanks profoundly for her help with and care for our mother and grandmother over many years.
In place of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Anthony Community Hospital, 15 Maple Avenue, Warwick, NY 10990.
Visitation will be on Sunday, March 1, from 3 to 5p.m. at Alison’s residence, 41 Meadowburn Road, Vernon, NJ 07462. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 2, at St. Stanislaus Church, 17 Pulaski Highway, Pine Island, N.Y., followed by interment in Warwick Cemetery, 50 Oakland Avenue, Warwick, N.Y.
Funeral arrangements were made by Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home, 17 Oakland Avenue, Warwick, N.Y. To send an online condolence, visit www.lsvpmemorialhome.com.