Local musicians recall Gregg Allman's mother

Before Geraldine Allman passed away on July 23 at age 98, local R&B singer Floyd Miles would drive her around the Daytona Beach area to take her to the dentist or an eye doctor.

No, people didn't recognize the elderly woman as the mother of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Gregg and Duane Allman — the woman local musicians have affectionately called “Mama A” ever since she began opening the doors of her Daytona Beach Shores home to them in the early 1960s.

Those doors also opened to Miles, who is black, even though the area was still socially (if not legally) segregated back then.

“People used to say, 'Well, I see your chauffeur there,' ” Miles said with a soft chuckle. “She'd say, 'Wait a minute — he's not my chauffeur, he's my friend.' That used to tickle me.”

A private memorial service for Geraldine Allman will be held “in the coming weeks,” according to a Facebook post on Wednesday by Galadrielle Allman, her granddaughter and the daughter of the late Duane Allman.

According to Gregg Allman's Facebook page, he was in Amsterdam for a performance the day his mother passed away. Allman is scheduled to perform Friday, July 31 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His publicist, Ken Weinstein, said he had received no information from Allman's management regarding the rock star's plans.

In the early 1960s, Miles was a member of the Untils, an all-black singing group that performed at the Oceanside Pier in Daytona Beach, backed by an all-white band called the Houserockers. He got to know Duane and Gregg when they came to watch, and learn from, Houserockers guitarist Jim Shepley.

The young Allmans invited the young Miles to their house to rehearse for a show.

“You know that was back in segregated days,” Miles said. “I was at their house rehearsing in the garage. I knew I was in the white section and on the beachside, and I was kind of skeptical about that.

“When a lady walked in, I assumed that was their mother and I thought, 'Oh shucks, I'm going to jail now or get ran out of here.' She came in and said hello to everybody and the next thing I know she offered us all some food and drink.

“That really impressed me. That stuck in my heart and mind.”

Local musician Brad Yates recalled in a previous News-Journal interview the times in the late 1960s when the brothers had scored a bit of success and would return to visit their mother.

“An army” of jam friends would spend the night at the Allman house and Mrs. Allman “would cook breakfast for everybody,” Yates said. “She was really neat like that. She supported those guys.”

Gregg Allman wrote fondly of his mother in his autobiography, “My Cross to Bear,” released in 2012.

“Whenever she and I get together, we have the best time,” he wrote. “Even after all these years, the two of us, we've been through it all and then some. She's so afraid I'm gonna die before her.

“That would just crush her, to lose two sons and a husband. Since Oct. 29, 1971, it's just been me and her.”

Miles recalled that when Gregg “started being busy and I wasn't on the road, I started doing for her when she got older.”

Along with taking Mama A for local appointments, Miles also drove her to visit Gregg at his Savannah home as well as relatives in North Carolina.

She also would attend Miles' concerts at the Bandshell over the years.

“I'd call and invite her and she'd go sometimes,” Miles said. “I was surprised, because the only shows I ever knew her to go to without Gregg was none of them (laughs).

“She was just a good person. I'm gonna miss her.”