Mary Beasley

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Mrs. Mary Joyce (Taylor) Beasley, 77, of Andalusia, passed away Sun., Nov. 16, at the Florala Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thurs., Nov. 20, at the Foreman Funeral Home chapel and burial will follow in the Andalusia Memorial Cemetery. Visiting hours will be at Foreman’s from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. today, Wed., Nov. 19. The Rev. Timothy R. Trent, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Andalusia, will be in charge of the service. Foreman’s Funeral Home will be in charge of the arrangements.
Mrs. Beasley was born on Jan. 17, 1931, and was the youngest child of William Wesley and Nancy Pearl Taylor. In 1947, she graduated from high school in Gordon, Ga., as a salutatorian of her graduating class. She entered nursing training at the Macon Hospital in Macon, Ga., in early 1948 and graduated in February 1951. She was valedictorian of her graduating class and was awarded a scholarship to further her nursing education. It was at this point she met her future husband, who was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Robins Air Force base, and they were married in August of that year. In September, he was ordered to duty in Florence, Italy, and she joined him in January 1952. They lived in Florence for 20 months and then transferred to Naples until being transferred a few months later to Headquarters Central Air Defense Force in Grandview, Mo., where they lived until October 1955. He was discharged from the USAF and they moved to Andalusia where she began her fulltime nursing career. She had worked for a short time in a psychiatric ward at a hospital in Kansas City, Mo. She was hired as a shift nurse at the Covington Memorial Hospital and was shortly thereafter named the director of nursing service. When the new Andalusia hospital was built and opened, she was transferred there in the same capacity and remained as the director for 27 years. She retired in September 1993.
She enjoyed golf, fishing, hunting, bridge, horticulture, reading, working crossword puzzles and putting together jigsaw puzzles. She was a member and officer in the Andalusia Country Club Ladies Golf Association, the El Martes Garden Club and the Inter Se Club. She won several ribbons for her floral arrangements displayed at the Covington County Fair and also won the 1979 Golf Digest Award for the Most Improved Golfer at the Andalusia Country Club.
She is survived by her husband of 57 years, James W. (Jim) Beasley Sr.; daughters, Karen J. (Tom) Sellers of Montgomery and Wanda D. (Peter) Katinszky of Anchorage, Alaska; sons, James W. (Laura) “Wynn” Beasley Jr. of Mooresville, N.C., and Jeffery L. (Nancy) Beasley of Acworth, Ga.; granddaughters, Laurie (Eric) Prescott of Atlanta, Emily (Fram) Frammartino of Mooresville, Jennifer Sellers of Montgomery and Sariah Beasley of Acworth; grandsons, Daniel Sellers of Auburn, Winston Beasley III of the U.S. Marine Corps, Jamie Sellers of Birmingham and Caleb Beasley of Acworth; sister, Verna Mae (DuPree) Blankenship of Gordon; and a number of nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her mother and father; two sisters, Estelle Smith and Mildred Evans; and two brothers, Linton and “Buddy” Taylor.
She was a member of Hardee’s Chapel Church of Christ in Gordon.
Pallbearers will be Bill Greenwald, Riley Taylor, Ralph Wells, Bob Brooks, Mike Holloway and Lee Enzor.
Contributions may be made to the Mary Joyce Beasley Memorial Fund at Superior Bank in Andalusia with an attention to Jennifer Lewis.
Friends and family unable to attend may sign the online guest registry at www.foremanfuneralhome.com.