Beverly J. Crawford passed away at the age of 90 on December 5, 2021.  Beverly was born at St Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, ID on October 24, 1931 the first child of T. W. “Bill” Thomas and Edith G. Thomas (French) and lived her entire life in the Eagle and Boise area.  Beverly filled all of the important roles in her life – daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother – with love, enthusiasm and support for those around her.

The 1930’s depression and post-depression era was a challenging time for a little girl living on a farm several miles Northwest of Eagle.  One can only imagine walking to school over a mile each way on a gravel road to attend Pleasant View School – a two room grade 1-8 school on Beacon Light Road.  Bev must have been ecstatic to have sister Elaine join the family.  Three years younger, her sister was a playmate, someone to walk to school with, someone to share the chores with – they were each other’s number one supporter for their entire lives.  Despite their young age, both girls were expected to work on the farm.  Bev told the story of “driving derrick” during hay harvest.  “Driving” had a much different definition in the 1930’s.  You drove the horse back and forth to lift the rake to stack loose hay.  Eventually she transitioned to a tractor, but the risk of making a mistake was ever present – the men working the rake depended on her.  On the farm they raised chickens commercially and had a 30-acre French prune orchard.  There was always work to be done.  

There were stories of some fun when cousin Dick Miller (4 years old) and his parents Vic and Lila (Thomas) Miller came to visit in 1937.  The Miller’s were from Long Beach, CA and that was a long way from Eagle, Idaho.  The girls were great hosts for cousin Dick.  They introduced him to the big white rooster that chased him repeatedly and encouraged him to get a little too close to the electric fence.  Even today, cousin Dick gets tears in his eyes laughing at how those girls treated their city cousin.

Beverly graduated from Pleasant View and completed her formal education graduating from Eagle High School in 1949.  Bev played the accordion and for years we listened to a recording of her playing on a Boise radio station.

The transition to attend Eagle High School meant riding the bus each way – which eventually played a significant role in her life.  Driving the school bus was a young Eagle man – returned from WWII service in the US Army, Glen Crawford took quite an interest in his bus passenger and she in him.   Beverly and Glen were married July 29, 1949 by Rev Hartzell Cobbs at the home of her parents on Strawberry Glen Road.  They were married for 53 years until Glen’s passing in 2002.  

In June 1950 son James was born and in June 1952 son Wayne was born.  Mom often said that she was still a “kid” and then she had two kids of her own.   She confessed that raising two boys was more of an experiment than a defined process.   Surrounded by “boys” meant that Mom rode her own motorcycle, camped,baited the hook, carried a shotgun, threw baseballs, hit golf balls, saddled the horse etc.  She served as a “room mother” for the boys while they attended Pierce Park Elementary.  She served in the PTA; she was the Den Mother in Cub Scouts – she did it all.  And as the boys played all the sports, she attended virtually every game in which they participated.  

Being a mom wasn’t enough - She worked full time beginningin 1958.  Boise Public Schools, University Christian Church, Boise State University all were her employers and her Eagle High School secretarial training served her very well.  

With the boys out of the house mom and dad pursued other interests.  They built a cabin near Smith’s Ferry, took several winter snowmobile trips as well as long range motorcycle trips.  They traveled to Florida and cross country to Washington D.C.  Then along came Heather in 1979.  A granddaughter in a family of all boys was certainly a welcome event for Mom.  Since Heather was living on the Oregon coast, that meant that their travel choices broadened and they headed West more often.  In the early 1980’s they began “mini-home” trips to Arizona and California – visiting relatives in Long Beach,  Jim in Fresno and the Oregon Coast to see Wayne and Heather.  

Of course, two farm kids had to till the soil.  It seemed that Beverly always planted a garden, mowed her own lawn (Until the mower died when she was 86), grew roses, planted sweet alyssum, weeded, moved plants, trimmed trees.  She was a self-described digger!  And she loved to feed the birds in her backyard.  She was very particular about the birdseed that she put in the feeders and would not use the seed sold close to her home.  No, she drove clear across town to buy the “right” birdseed for her backyard feathered friends.  Hours of entertainment for her. 

In the mid 80’s Bev and Glen undertook their version of retirement and for 15 years they found their way to Indio, California to work at the Riverside County Fair and Date Festival.  The theme of the Fair was Arabian Nights, so mom wore a flowing long saree to her job as the fair manager’s secretary. For the months of January and February they had afree place to park their 5Th wheel trailer and were getting paid to be in the warm winter sunshine.  What more could they ask? And their Idaho friends also joined them for part or all of the experience.  Listening to Mom talk about this annual adventure, it was clear that she enjoyed that specific annual trek as much as anything they did as a married couple.   Farm kids never really stop working!  The fair manager was heard to say “we couldn’t put on this fair if it weren’t for the Idaho snowbirds.”  There were lots of stories, but none more exciting than when a palm tree was uprooted by a late-night wind storm and fell, crushing their pickup while they slept just a few yards away in their 5thwheel.  

Beverly was baptized by Rev Newell Morgan at the “old” Central Christian Church on 9th street.  Jim was about 9 years old and he sat with Aunt Elaine watching the spectacle unfold.  Shortly thereafter the newly constructed First Christian Church (later the University Christian Church) was completed and the Crawford family started attending the new church.  Eventually all of us were baptized and Mom began a 45-year commitment to the church.  Mom and dad attended the Come Double Class and made great friends with other depression era babies.  Glen was a Deacon and Mom a Deaconess.  At the annual church “Harvest Dinner” the “Crawford’s” (Glen, Bev, Barney & Bonnie) cooked 20 turkeys and were instrumental in the success of the event.  Mom was a member of the Bell Choir – they laughingly called themselves the ding-a-lings – and they performed regularly at church services.  

Mom eventually took on a larger role and served on the board of trustees of the church.  In 2003 Beverly headed the Pulpit Committee and was charged with finding a new minister.  A big undertaking, which led her to seek counsel from Dr. Charles Crane who helped her recruit Jim Kirby to assume the leadership of the church.  She was very proud of that major accomplishment.  When the University Christian building was sold, that congregation moved West to become ParkviewChristian Church in the Meridian area. At that time, Beverlybegan attending Eagle Christian Church where Elaine was a member.  The two sisters became regulars at the Saturday night services, providing the two of them both the religious experience as well as the sister bonding time.  For a while Beverly helped with pre-school Sunday school kids, which was somewhat of an adventure for an octogenarian

Previously it was said that Farm Kids Never Stop Working!  Beverly thoroughly enjoyed the time when she worked both full and later part-time at BSU.  For many years she would work several weeks both Spring and Fall to help enroll students at BSU.    Before the days of students logging on to the Universitycomputer to enroll themselves, a bank of well-trained ladies sitting behind computer screens would greet students and enroll them for their classes. Being around all those college kids was stimulating to Bev.  And she saw them return semester after semester as they progressed toward graduation.  One day she expressed some interest in trying to help a student in some way financially.  Particularly she said, “I would see these young women, perhaps a young child with them, standing in line to register for the nursing program.  In many cases it seemed that they were looking to start over in life – maybe a divorce or other life event has caused them to be standing there in front of me – often looking like a deer-in-the-headlights.  And frequently I would see them the following semester and they were standing taller and appeared to be moving ahead.”  This led to her establishing and funding the Beverly J. Crawford Endowed Scholarship for Nursing.  This has been a source of great joy as she receives a letter every year from a student that she has helped and she attended several of the annual scholarship dinners to meet her scholarship recipients in person.  

For about the last 6 years Beverly was also a benefactor to the Boise Rescue Mission.  There was something about their mission endeavoring to feed the soul, the spirit and the body that compelled her to provide them with generous funding.  The Rescue Mission was very surprised at her generosity – she simply mailed them a check – no fanfare.  They wanted to meet her, give her a tour, buy her lunch.  She declined and was satisfied that she had helped them and that was good enough for her.

No writing or discussion with or about Beverly would be complete without a mention of her passion and skill at sewing, knitting, crochet, quilting and almost any other form of making and repairing fabric, yarn etc.  Early (1963) efforts included knitting the boys headcovers for their golf clubs (4 each) and of course knitting slippers for the household.  She made curtains for every house she lived in as well as for every recreational vehicle, cabin and for any family member if they needed her help.  Perhaps her most enjoyed handicraft was crocheting blue and pink baby hats for newborns at the hospital.  It wasn’t something that she did every day, but she would put it down and then pick it up again.  During her last five months at Grace Memory Care, a pink baby hat adorned the door to her room and since she had two of them when she arrived, one of her caregivers was pregnant and thrilled to receive a hat for her soon-to-be-born little girl.  We can’t know how many she made – more than several hundred – maybe 500 or more.  Something that made her happy, others happy and she could do at her pace.  During Covid-19 quarantine and working with sister Elaine, she made face masks.  Again, we don’t know how many, but she mailed us a half dozen with various colors and designs.  She gave Elaine what she produced and they were distributed in the community.

Glen died in 2002 and Beverly was relatively young (71) and she didn’t venture out much the first winter.  She realized, to her credit, that she had made a mistake in not looking for something to fill her time.  She began to explore adding some activities to her schedule.  One that surprised us was water aerobics at 7 am several days a week.  Beverly was never that comfortable simply swimming and getting her face wet.  And that early in the morning year around was a pretty big commitment.  She loved it!  She became well acquainted with the other regulars and they even went for breakfast on occasion.  The low impact nature of water aerobics suited her very well.  She continued going early in the morning well into her 80’s.  

Her neighbor recruited her to volunteer at the Eagle library every week on Thursday.   They shelved books, sold used books and generally provided the library with two people who liked to read and liked books and felt good about their volunteer effort.  Bev would lookout for books to read and with this ready-made weekly opportunity to sift through the inventory, it really helped to keep her reading.  She even branched out a little bit – mostly it was non-fiction and biographies that she preferred, but on occasion she would find herself trying something new to see what else there was to enjoy.  

While not extensive, she was willing to travel a bit.  She visited us in San Francisco several times for significant birthdays and a retirement celebration.  On one such trip, she insisted on buying dinner one night.  “Let’s go someplace special and I will buy”.  Well, the Bay Area isn’t Eagle, Idaho and prices usually have an additional digit.  Off we went to a newer trendy seafood restaurant along the bayfront.  Wonderful food, great atmosphere, huge fish tank – in all a great experience and she enjoyed herself.  Along came the dinner tab and to her credit, she handed over her Mastercard without hesitation.  When the server returned for a signature, we watched carefully to make sure she didn’t hyperventilate at the total.  Truthfully you could not see even the smallest hint of surprise in her face.  She signed it and left a reasonable tip.  Every once in a while, she would say, “wasn’t that a great meal that we had in San Francisco!” Proud of her for moving out of her comfort zone.

In 2010 she came to the desert for her longest visit – about six weeks.  We would have liked to think that it was our hospitality that made her enjoy this trip.  In fact, we were landscaping the property, buying furniture and decorating the condo.  She really got into the program.  Off to the nursery for sacks of rocks, plants, fountains – everything to make the house a home.  She dug, planted plants and bushes and spread rocks and offered opinions and was a valuable contributor to the project.  In future years there weren’t as many projects, so she wasn’t as interested in long visits. 

One of the reasons that she didn’t travel often other than in the dead of winter was gardening.  Another significant reason was Granddaughter Heather.  Glen and Bev were very proud grandparents when Heather graduated from high school in Newport, Oregon.  And it wasn’t too long after that and Heather arrived in Boise and Grandma was really happy.  They had a special relationship – regular lunches, mom loved to help Heather with some of the landscaping at her houses – digging with her granddaughter wasn’t work, it was heaven.  Heather worked for a while and then began taking classes at BSU – continuing to work.  She pursued her paralegal training and graduated with her bachelor’s degree from BSU in 2011.  The picture of Beverly and Heather at graduation contained two of the biggest smiles ever!

The last ten years things slowed a bit for Beverly.  Of course,there was always gardening, cutting down and pruning trees, feeding the birds, walking around her neighborhood, finishing the newspaper crossword puzzle, lunch with Bonnie, Muriel and Bea to catch up on the goings on, folding bulletins at the church on Fridays, library volunteer with Alie, reading, knitting and crochet, lunch with Heather, phone calls from family, attending the Eagle High monthly reunion luncheons, church with Elaine, a couple of house remodel projects – SLOWED DOWN?

Beverly enjoyed good health for 89.5 years.  She believed in vitamins, cod liver oil, not much red meat and getting out in the sunshine.  She only took two drugs in her late 80’s, eye drops for glaucoma and thyroid medication.  

However, in the spring of 2021, something changed.  Was it the long Covid-19 winters, 20 years living alone without Glen sharing her life, or just the effects of 90 years?  She said many times, ”I am not lonely – I take after my dad – I am very content with my own company.”

Some simple tasks became hard, some names and words escaped her, operating remotes and cell phones  (she could always yield a shovel) became harder, and simply taking care of her taxes and bill paying became overwhelming to her.  She stopped reading and doing crossword puzzles.  

It was a shock to all of us – because for 89 years we didn’t have to worry about Bev – self-sufficient, independent, healthy – all the good things for her age.

Her decline was rapid and extremely frustrating for her and us.  Every time that we thought we knew what was happening, she would slip a little more. The family rallied around her; Elaine, Heather, Joyce, Karan and Jeff, Tod, Chris, Diane and Jim all took turns in many ways to support her so she could live independently.  Eventually it became unsafe for her and with the concurrence of her doctor, we reluctantly moved her to Grace-Meridian.  She lasted about 3 weeks in the traditional senior care building and then she was moved into the Memory Care unit.  For a little over 4 months, she gradually got weaker, found the simplest task undoable, needed help with most everything that she had done for herself for well over 80 years and she was miserable despite having good care.  As she declined, she knew that she was declining – that was hard for all of us to watch and certainly very hard for her to experience.  

Despite the efforts of her family who sat the vigil next to her bed for several long days, Beverly waited for the quiet of the early morning and slipped away.  

Sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, mother-in-law, friend to the end.  We miss her, but we are so happy that she no longer suffers or is in pain or fear.  

Beverly is survived by her sister, Elaine L. Tucker, son James D. Crawford and his wife Diane, granddaughter Heather R. Crawford, daughter-in-law Joyce Lucier, sister-in-law Bonnie Crawford and first cousin Richard L. Miller as well as numerous nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by son Wayne A. Crawford.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Beverly J. Crawford.  She exemplified the attributes of the Greatest Generation and will be greatly missed by us all.

We know that Beverly had at least three organizations that were important to her.  

-Boise State University Foundation Beverly J. Crawford Endowed Scholarship for Nursing

    1173 University Drive   Boise, ID   83706

-Boise Rescue Mission

     P. O. Box 1494  Boise, ID  83701

-Eagle Christian Church

     100 S. Short Road  Eagle, ID  83616

 

If you are so inclined, we encourage you to consider making a contribution in her name to one of these organizations or of course to your favorite cause.