On Sunday March 26, 2006 we said goodbye to Earlene Beckley, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, treasured friend, inspiration and confidant. She will always be alive in our hearts as we remember all the ways she touched our lives.
Earlene loved life and enjoyed everything about her family and friends. She loved laughter, camping, barbecues, gardening, mushroom hunting, crab fishing, baseball games, laughter, e-mail, shopping, Costco, laughter, visits with friends old and new at Toby’s Tavern. Oh, and did we mention laughter?
Earlene was the best listener ever. It never mattered who you were, how well you knew her or what you were going through whether it was happy of sad, Earlene listened and was always a source of strength and an inspiration.
Earlene was born Sept. 20, 1937 in Meeker, Colo., to Jane and Leo Reeves. She graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1955. Earlene married her high school sweetheart, Joe Beckley, on Nov. 24, 1956. Their first daughter, Robin, was born in 1957. Earlene got her RN degree from St. Mark’s Hospital School of Nursing in Salt Lake Utah on Sept. 11, 1959. Later, two more daughters joined the Beckley family, Jana in 1964 and Danette in 1965.
The Beckleys moved to Coupeville in 1968 where Earlene worked for a year at Whidbey General Hospital and then spent the next 25 years working as a Public Health Nurse at Island County Health Department.
Some of the “hats” Earlene wore as a Public Health Nurse included being a home health nurse, the communicable disease nurse, immunization program coordinator, school nurse at all three Whidbey school districts and Jail Nurse for the Island County Sheriff’s Office. Earlene also acted as a SIDS nurse and put her compassion to work as she went out to homes to visit with families who had lost infants to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Sports medicine was also a love Earlene had and so she shared this love with the Coupeville School District working as a sports trainer.
God shared the gift of Earlene with all of us and left us with lots of love in our hearts and memories of this wonderful life. Earlene is survived by her husband Joe Beckley, daughter Robin Smith (grandchildren Tara and Taylor Smith), daughter Jana Bouzek and husband Matt (grandsons Jase and Jett), daughter Danette Beckley and husband Stew Drake, and her brother Bob Reeves of Grand Junction, Colo.
Last but not by any means least, Earlene leaves friends too numerous to list in the pages of this paper. (You know who you are!)
Memorial gifts can be made in Earlene’s name to: SIDS Foundation of Washington, 4649 Sunnyside Avenue N, Suite 348, Seattle, WA 98103.
There sill be a celebration of Earlene’s life at Toby’s Tavern in Coupeville on Sunday, April 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with all friends of the family invited.
