Beverly Jean Alvord

Throughout her 82 years of life, Beverly Jean Alvord played many roles...mom, grandma, loving companion, wife, friend, nurse, co-worker, and caretaker among them. Beverly died on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 from the Alzheimer's disease that had plagued her for more than eight years. Born at 10:45 p.m. at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bellingham, Washington on February 20, 1932, Bev was clearly destined to make her mark upon the world as she weighed a whopping 10 lbs. 5 oz. She spent the first ten years of her life in Everson, Washington with her mom and dad, Frank Alonzo and Lela Mabel (Staub) Alvord. Two years later, her brother Duane joined the family. One of the most entertaining stories Bev liked to tell of her childhood occurred when she was about four years old and sported a head full of Shirley Temple ringlets. Bev hated those darned curls, so one day when Lela was distracted, she pilfered her mom's scissors, cut off all those ringlets, and dumped them in a mud puddle. Then in 1942, the Alvord clan headed south to Oregon and took up residence in a housing project in Clackamas Heights (Oregon City). Besides the birth of her youngest brother Stan in 1946 and meeting the girl who would become her life-long best friend (and occasional partner in crime), Margie (Huff) Nase, Bev also lived next door to the Bryan family, Milt and Bea and their sons Bill and Gary. Throughout her teen years, Bev took piano lessons from Miss Sadie Ford Black and often told her children that when the time came to choose a career path, she was torn between becoming a concert pianist or a nurse. As we all know, nursing won out. Nevertheless, throughout her life, Bev was almost never without a piano or an organ in her home. Music was mighty important to her. Bev graduated from elementary school in 1945, having attended the historic Park Place School in Oregon City, and then it was on to Oregon City High School, where she became the editor of the school newspaper, "The Elevator". Many of Bev's numerous Staub cousins lived in and around Oregon City, so they spent lots of time together. Bev particularly liked to tell stories about her antics with cousins Walt and Larry Stone. In all, Bev had in the neighborhood of 50 first cousins. After high school graduation in 1949, Bev, along with her bosom buddy Margie, attended the University of Oregon School of Nursing and graduated on June 6, 1952. Three months later, she married William M. Bryan, that fella she lived next door to in Clackamas Heights. Bev and Bill were married for the next 30 years. During that time, they had five children--Milton, Kathy, Sharon, Kurt, and Maurine--and lived in and around Milwaukie, Oregon. In November of 1954, when Milton was just 15 months old, Bill and Bev moved to France while Bill was in the Army. They returned to the States in August of 1955, when Bev was six months pregnant with Kathy. Just 11 months after Kathy was born, Sharon arrived. Three months later, in 1957, Bev went to work at the TB Hospital. Kurt and Maurine arrived in 1962 and 1963, and in 1964, Bev began work at Holladay Park Hospital, where she would remain until her retirement in 1994. She was, in fact, one of the final employees at Holladay Park and helped to shut down the hospital. Life with five kids was pretty darned hectic, but the Bryan family took many memorable camping trips in the Pacific Northwest, from Timothy Lake on Mt. Hood, to Lake Crescent, Washington, and most famously, to Wickiup Reservoir in Central Oregon. Whatever the location, Bev was always the chief cook for a horde of campers that could easily number as many as 30. Nobody could prepare freshly caught trout like Bev could, and the only person that could build a bigger campfire than Bev was her dad, Frank. Their skill with campfire construction earned them the nicknames Bonfire Bev and Inferno Frank. These epic camping trips were never limited just to family. Accompanying the Bryans on many of these camping adventures were Paul Eldredge, Danni Sue Dwyre, Bev Gore, Patti Moore, Brian Clark, and Denise Miller, childhood friends and neighbors of the Bryan kids. As a further testament to Bev's caring nature, when Danni and Bev (who came to be known as Little Bev to distinguish her from Big Bev) were in high school and life at home was a bit rough, Bev (and Bill) took the girls into the Bryan home for over a year, treating them as their own daughters. In 1981, Bev and Bill divorced. In 1982, Bev and Patrick McGowan began dating and would be loving companions to each other for the next 32 years. Patrick liked to call Bev his Party Girl because among their many joys was getting decked out in their finest attire with lots of bling and going dancing. They were, in fact, often the hit of any party they attended. As Patrick said, "We entertained people because we had such a wonderful time together." More than a few of Patrick's Christmas cards in the past 32 years have featured a photo of the two of them in party regalia. When Bev died on September 10, Patrick was at her side, holding her hand and comforting her, as he had been doing since Alzheimer's disease started to claim her. Though she did not become a grandmother until she was 57, Bev made the most of her 25 years as Grandma Alvord. Tony was born first (to Sharon and her husband Pat Scott) in 1989, Joe arrived in 1994 to Kathy and her husband Don Evensizer, then came Isaac in 1996 (born to Kurt and his wife Frances Silta), and finally Lana and Lucas joined the family in 1998 and 2000, the children of Maurine and her husband Allen Wagner. When he was just a little guy, Tony always referred to Bev as "the cooking grandma", and she did love to cook. Joe remembers a time that Grandma Alvord had a big stuffed teddy bear in her bedroom with a red bow tie, and he would always use it as a pillow when he slept over. After she gave the bear to him, he lovingly referred to it as "Cinnamon Bear", named in honor of the cinnamon toast she would make him for breakfast during those sleepovers. And Isaac recalls that Grandma flew out to Indiana in August of 2001 just so she could see him off to his first day of kindergarten. One of Bev's hobbies throughout much of her life was sewing. She became quite an accomplished seamstress, producing beautiful jackets, dresses, trousers, and coats. (There was, of course, that unfortunate "stretch-n-sew" fad in the 1960s to which both Bev and her mom, Lela, succumbed, but we, her children, believe that is best forgotten.) Besides sewing, Bev had a number of creative interests at which she excelled. She could restore any piece of furniture, as well as expertly wallpaper and paint any space, from a multi-floored hallway wall to a tiny utility room. In the summer of 1973, she built a great room addition to the house on Oakland Avenue with her carpenter dad Frank, all while keeping up with the Watergate hearings on radio and TV. Bev was also an avid reader throughout her entire life. She adored her murder mysteries, and whenever Kathy or Sharon came to visit, she had piles of books to hand off to them. While she probably read The Oregonian everyday for most of her adult life, once she retired in 1994, every morning began with a cup of coffee and a thorough reading of the newspaper--every page, front to back, including the food ads. Then she would complete the crossword puzzle...in ink. Bev was also a master gardener, especially where roses were concerned. (She passed on her love of and skill in gardening to Kathy.) Both her home on Oakland Avenue and her final home on Deschutes Drive in Portland sported magnificent rose gardens that Bev attended with great love. In fact, it was her final wish that Patrick spread part of her ashes on her rose garden. Though Bev retired from nursing in 1994, she was a caretaker at heart, and that was never more evident than in the way she looked after her mom and dad in their later years. When their health began to fail and it became difficult for them to continue living in their home across town in Oregon City, in 1988 Bev and Patrick had a mobile home installed on their property on Kaiser Road in Portland, and Frank and Lela moved in. Together, they would continue to care for Frank and Lela until they passed, Frank in 1997 and Lela in 2003. In addition, when Bev's younger brother Duane became terminally ill, Bev flew to Florida and saw him through his final days in 1999. The greatest tragedies of Bev's life were the deaths of her eldest children, Milton, in 1979, and Kathy, in 2009. We take comfort in picturing the three of them reunited, along with Frank, Lela, and Duane, lounging in a fishing boat, laughing and sharing stories, and wondering if it is 5:00 yet (it must be somewhere), with everyone trying to catch more fish than Lela. Besides Patrick, Sharon, Kurt, and Maurine, Bev is survived by her grandchildren Tony, Joe, Isaac, Lana, and Lucas; daughter-in-law Frances; sons-in-law Patrick, Don, and Allen; brother Stan; sister-in-law Nan Alvord; nephews Steve, David, and Todd; and nieces Anne, Jamay, Kim, and Melissa. Many of her 50+ cousins survive her, too. In lieu of flowers, remembrances in Beverly's name may be made to the Alzheimer's Association. Service Information