Geraldine Loretta Saunders (September 3, 1923 – February 26, 2019) known under pen name Jeraldine Saunders was an American writer, TV creator/screenwriter and lecturer,

Biography

Saunders was best known as the creator of TV series ''

The Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pa ...

'', an

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

series and its associated made-for-TV films portraying the humorous and romantic adventures of various itinerant passengers. Saunders had worked as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

, an astrologer, an

numerologist Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

and palm reader. The program was based on her 1974 book, ''The Love Boats'', her anecdotal account of her time employed as the first full-time female cruise director. From 2003 until her death Saunders was the author of Omarr's Astrological Forecast. The nationally syndicated horoscope column, read by hundreds of thousands worldwide, was originally created by

Sydney Omarr Sydney Omarr (August 5, 1926 – January 2, 2003) was an American astrologer and an astrology consultant to the rich and famous. His daily Sun sign astrology, ''Sun Sign Horoscope'' column appeared in more than 200 newspapers and his annual forec ...

, to whom she had been briefly married to, in 1966. In 1968 Saunders discovered her fiancé, the actor

Albert Dekker Thomas Albert Ecke Van Dekker (December 20, 1905 – May 5, 1968) was an American character actor and politician best known for his roles in ''Dr. Cyclops'', ''The Killers (1946 film), The Killers'' (1946), ''Kiss Me Deadly'', and ''The Wild Bun ...

, dead in his Hollywood home. The death was ruled to be accidental.

References

1923 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American women writers Writers from Los Angeles American astrologers 21st-century American women {{US-tv-bio-stub