Geraldine Eubanks Plato’s first encounter with a deaconess was as a child in St. Louis. She was playing in the park with her 12 siblings on a Sunday morning. Deaconess Ann Koch followed the 
children home and asked their mother what she could do to help. After bathing one of the babies, she took the children to Sunday school and continued to take them every Sunday for many years.
In high school, Geri’s pastor asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. Geri said, “I would be a nun if I were Catholic.” Pastor George Liebnow arranged a visit to VU and the deaconess training program for Geri and secretly began planning for her to attend. Geri was the first African American to become a deaconess with the LDA. She was consecrated in 1958.
Her first call was to Faith Lutheran Church, Kansas City, KS. She was the principal of a church school where she visited homes of unchurched children, held Sunday School, VBS, and did evangelism and counseling. One of her first letters to the LDA says, ” Today I taught a weekday release time church school of 67 little (mean) fifth grade boys.”
Geri was a huge advocate of the deaconess program. During one month in 1959, she made 20 presentations! In 1962, after her marriage to George Plato, they were commissioned to serve as vicar and deaconess at Mt. Calvary in Denver, CO. Sadly, George died in 1964. Geri then taught at St. Stephen’s Lutheran in St. Louis. She also received a BS in elementary education.
In 1984, Geri wrote, “God has given me a special love for children — children who hurt and need love and affirmation. I hope to impart the idea that they are precious because God has chosen them knowing who they are in Christ. God uses me to wipe snotty noses, give hugs and kisses, and push for academic excellence within the realm of a child’s ability. God has given me so much. I seek to serve in whatever way possible.”
Geri died on January 11, 2017.
