Anne Beck Bevan

We have not been surprised that there have been thunderstorms every day since our Anne Bevan died in the early hours Friday, July 18. She took the light with her for a moment, and the sun is fighting to regain its footing.

Anne Beck Bevan arrived on this earth on November 17, 1937, the second child of the late Donald Y. and Mildred Miller Beck, and a star was born. She was faster than the wind even as a child, knowing that when she felt a cold coming on, all that was needed was to get out in the yard and run until she outran it.

At the age of five, a cousin nearly cost her a leg when he put tacks in the chair she then knelt on, but always a resilient trooper, she and her father worked together to keep her on both feet, and though it left a lifelong mark, she never let anyone see it. From that early trauma, she learned to be strong in the face of pain, and to never admit defeat.

Her dad was her best friend, her older sister Nancy Beck Johnson, who danced off this earth ahead of mom, was a lifelong gardening buddy, and her mother, Mildred Miller Beck, her role model.

Mom grew up at her parents’ home out by Cunningham Brick Company in Thomasville before they moved to Lexington when she was in high school. Though she loved the brick company where her father worked, she was lonely, and she celebrated when she found a whole slew of lifelong friends in Lexington.

In high school, her incredible gymnastic talent and dance moves landed her on the cheerleading squad, and her intelligence, which was incredible until the very end, was sometimes frustrating because during the time she grew up, girls weren’t supposed to be intelligent, only mothers and wives. She dreamed of becoming an architect, and carried the sadness of not fulfilling that dream with her always. She went to Salem College and reluctantly became an elementary teacher in Lexington. She always said she was beyond grateful her first principal and first class were incredible, or she would have abandoned it. But the truth is, she was born to teach, and in her 40s she returned to graduate school at Appalachian State University and got her Master’s Degree, becoming a reading specialist.

She went back and taught in a variety of schools in Davidson County, working with first and second graders that most had given up on. She heard again and again that the children she taught would never read, and yet at the end of the year, they were not only reading, but writing. She spent a few years at Davidson Davie Community College when it was still DCCC, teaching adults to read. Her first year, an 82 year old man brought himself to her classroom, saying he wanted to learn to read the Bible before he died. One year later, he could.

People approached “Ms. B” her entire lifetime, reminding her of all she had given them, the education, the friendship, the support and the love.

During my youth, she joined me in dancing to music like Philadelphia Freedom and Hot Legs, she and my grandmother made stunning prom dresses for me, she challenged me on the tennis court during my years on school teams, and joined me water skiing behind grandad’s boat. She was always curious about everyone and everything, and more than anything, what all of us will remember is that laugh, that absolute delight that bubbled out over and over again like music.

She loved so many of my friends, so many of our children’s friends, encouraging them all. A young man in Connecticut credits her for encouraging him to pursue the publication of his first book. A young woman says she helped her decide to stay and fight a serious illness instead of giving up. A cherished classmate of mine said mom was always watching, even when it seemed no other adults were paying attention. She loved, and was loved in return by so many.

Most of all, she loved her husband, Roy, who went ahead to make a space for her in 2015, and she loved me, Elisabeth, her only child, and my husband, Jim Strillacci.

And she loved our boys, Josh and Zach Flink, and our daughters and their husbands, Nicole Strillacci and Ken Purnell, Emily Strillacci and Kevin Clement, Eve Strillacci, and Claire Strillacci.

Her spirit of adventure and her curiosity about everything also extended to traveling the world, with her dear friend Catherine “Gay” Hutchins, with her beloved Roy, and even with her grandson Josh, with whom she traveled to China at the age of 78.

There is not enough room to share all the things mom accomplished in her 87 years of life here in Lexington – the Garden Club, the Charity League, the work she volunteered to do for the town, the community and her church, First Reformed United Church of Christ.

Her faith was quiet but absolute, and a guide to me in tough days. It led her through a bout with colon cancer and it was her strength as those she loved left for their own next adventures one by one.

There were lifelong friends, Gay, Kay Timberlake, Rose Dameron, the late Dwight Bumgarner, Mia Shoaf, David Redwine and her minister, Elizabeth Horton, among many others, who were a part of her joyful circle always, and who kept her company after dad left. I owe all of them a tremendous debt of gratitude for their devoted work to help her smile remain until she could be with dad again. And always, her dogs, Cocoa, with whom she has now reunited, and Joy, the two rescued pitbulls she loved with all her heart, even if they were bigger than she was standing up. There is nothing, she said, like the love of a dog, and she was, as always, right.

She carried the torch forward for us, and now it is our turn, to take up the light she carried and bring back the sun that we all associate with her. For the sun must return as she is free to go to dance with daddy again.

We will gather to share memories and stories at a service at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 22 at First Reformed United Church of Christ, 104 East Center Street, Lexington, and invite you to come a visit with us afterward at the fellowship hall.

Mom would love donations to be made to her so-loved Salem College or to the church, FRUCC. However you wish to remember her is welcome, we each honor in our own way. More than anything, please, share your stories with us, for in the telling, we keep her spirit alive.