This is a belated thank you to the News Review staff and specifically Mary Lou Williamson, Amy Hansen and Sandra Lange who collaborated on the wonderful tribute to my mother, Dr. Virginia W. Beauchamp which ran on the front page, February 21 following her death on February 10. She came close to achieving 99 years on this earth. Our family had tentatively started planning a spring memorial service for the Saturday preceding Mother’s Day and having given this date verbally to enough Greenbelt “family,” perhaps a new “save the date” for Saturday, September 28, 2019, is in order.
Our plans for her memorial service in the fall, or “celebration of life,” which new date seems to work better for some who loved her, will take place at the University of Maryland main chapel in the early afternoon, followed by a tea, and officiated by Senior Leader Amanda Poppei of the Washington Ethical Society (WES). A more formal announcement with specific start time will be made closer to that date.
WES was first led by my grandfather (Virginia’s father-inlaw) beginning in the late 1940s and is a religious organization to which she belonged. Both she and he were early pioneers in civil rights, ending segregation, anti-Semitism and other inhumane exclusionary treatment of any people of any faith, race or nationality. Thus my mother’s service will be ecumenical, appropriate to any faith teaching, practice or custom, or for any human.
I wish to personally thank all of those who have expressed condolences on our loss of our lovely and beloved matriarch. We are still trying to cope. Thank you for your understanding.
Thank You
October 1946 - American Red Cross Club, Yamagata, Japan: Virginia Walcott (later Beauchamp) organized a tea ceremony. This was a year after the end of WWII. She was 26, and serving with the Red Cross, running a club for US servicemen.