As a young girl, Genevieve took tap dancing lessons on the stage of the Fisher Theater and was the captain of the girls' basketball team at Hutchins Intermediate School. She spent her summers at her grandparent's house in Newtown. After graduating from Cooley High School in Detroit in 1941, she went to work as a secretary. On June 29, 1943 she enlisted in the United States Marine Corps - Women's Reserve at the Book Tower Building in Detroit. She began active duty on August 23, 1943 and was sent to training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After completing basic training she was promoted to Sergeant and assigned to duty in a Marine recruiting office in Richmond, Virginia:

While living in Richmond she met her future husband, Charles Snearly, Jr., a Second Lieutenant in the Army 806 Engineer Aviation Battalion. Charles was sent into combat in the Pacific Theater but the couple exchanged letters throughout the war. After serving in Richmond for a year, Genevieve was sent to Motion Picture Operator school at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. While attending school she lived in Manhattan in the former residence of Emily Post. After graduation she was sent to the Marine Air Base at Cherry Point, North Carolina, where she operated two 35 millimeter projectors to show movies to the troops.

Genevieve was honorably discharged from the Marines on November 24, 1945, three months after the end of World War II.  She married Charles and became Genevieve Snearly in Wichita Falls, Texas on April 23, 1946. In 1953 the couple moved to Detroit, and in 1955 they moved to Farmington, Michigan, where they lived for nearly 50 years. Charles died on December 20, 2004, and Genevieve moved to Novi, Michigan in 2005.