09/21/2026
The Legacy of Gene & Jeanie Fitzgerald ❤️
It is with incredibly heavy hearts that we share that our mom, Jeanie Fitzgerald, passed away peacefully on Friday, surrounded by her family — her son Christopher, her daughter Erin, and her grandson Jacob.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone at Milford Hospital for the kindness, compassion, and care they showed our mom and our family. They were absolutely amazing with her, and that is something we will never forget.
It’s hard to put into words what our mom meant to Park Place, because being a business owner wasn’t just something she did — it was part of who she was.
The story of Gene and Jeanie Fitzgerald started long before Park Place. In 1974, Mom and Dad became owners of the Kent & Sussex Inn, which they owned until 1996. Then, in 1989, they bought Park Place and began another chapter together.
For 52 years, our mom was a business owner.
Gene and Jeanie were partners in every sense of the word. They worked side by side building their businesses and raising their family until we lost our dad in 2006.
After Dad passed, Mom took control of Park Place and kept moving forward. Years later, she passed much of the day-to-day responsibility on to the two of us — although anyone who knew Jeanie knows she still had the final say. ❤️
She absolutely loved Park Place. She loved the people who walked through these doors, and she had a way of turning customers into friends and friends into family. To Mom, Park Place was never just a business. It was part of our family.
And she never stopped working for it.
Even when she was no longer physically able to be at Park Place every day, she continued doing the books from home, keeping up with everything, and making sure we were taking care of what she and Dad had spent their lives building.
From the Kent & Sussex Inn in 1974 to Park Place today, Mom spent more than five decades doing what she knew best — working hard, taking care of her family, taking care of her businesses, and taking care of the people who became part of them.
We are heartbroken to have lost our mom, but we are also so incredibly proud of her.
Proud of the businesswoman she was. Proud of everything Gene and Jeanie Fitzgerald built together. Proud of the strength it took for her to carry on after losing Dad. Proud that she trusted the two of us to continue something that meant so much to both of them. And most of all, incredibly proud to be their children.
Mom and Dad, you gave us so much more than a business.
You gave us a legacy.
We’ll take it from here, Mom. ❤️
But knowing Jeanie… somehow, some way, she’ll still have the final say. ❤️
With love,
Christopher & Erin
