Beverly J. McIllwain

Beverly Jean McIllwain passed away of natural causes in St. Francis Hospice in Melbourne, Florida, on Sunday morning, February 16th, 2025. She lived a remarkable life and left a legacy of unflagging love, resilience and purpose. Her passing came just ten days shy of her 77th birthday and her spirit now rests peacefully and lovingly in the arms of her Lord and Savior.

Beverly was the eldest daughter of US Air Force Chief Warrant Officer-3 William E. Acker and Joanne Elaine Nigh of Lancaster County Pennsylvania. In 1948 she was one of the first children to be born at the US Army’s 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to a US Military family during the post-World War II occupation period. Therefore it could be said that Beverly was a bit “unique” from the very beginning.

Beverly graduated with State Regents’ Honors from Senior High School in Massapequah, New York in 1966 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy at Colorado State University (CSU) in 1970. She became a Registered Occupational Therapist (OTR), with specialties in Childhood Development and Sensory Integration.

Beverly was licensed to practice as an OT in the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and for a number of years (off-and-on due to multiple breaks while she accompanied her husband on overseas assignments) she was an Itenerate Occupational Therapist serving several elementary schools in Fairfax County, Virginia. Her main specialty there was in assisting children with Downs Syndrome to cope with and to excel after being “mainstreamed” in the school system.

She was accorded several honors for her service when she retired from the Fairfax County and Virginia School system in 2005. However, she would always point to experiences overseas as the real highlights professionally. This included as Staff Occupational Therapist at Lady Reading Hospital in Hong Kong in 1985-1986, and service with Exceptional Family Member Services (EFMS) at the US Army Medical Activity (MEDDAC) in Berlin, Germany, in 1989-1990. At EFMS she provided

school-based occupational therapy for handicapped children of US Military families assigned to Berlin.

Beverly often claimed the most fulfilling to her personally was her work in Peshawar, Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan, 1999-2001, where she assisted a local Pakistani medical doctor in providing free medical services of all types (including OT) to Afghani women, many of them indigent widows, and their children, who were living in refugee camps throughout the province and had no medical services of any kind available. She also provided prosthetics for war-injured amputees.

December 1970 was a BIG month for Beverly. Not only did she complete her OT internships and received her OT Registration, that month she married her college sweetheart, “Pete” McIllwain, who was a newly commissioned Army Infantry Second Lieutenant, then fresh back from Ranger school and awaiting an assignment to Vietnam. Thus began a marriage which lasted 55 years.

Beverly took to the requirements of being “a good Army wife” with caustic good humor, and along the way bore and raised two wonderful daughters, and experienced the alleged “adventure” of Army family living in places like Korea, Germany and the Panama Canal Zone.

Pete’s move to a second career with the Clandestine Service side of the CIA brought another set of unique challenges for Beverly. Being the “spouse of a spook” meant playing the “cover game,” with which she was never truly comfortable. And it meant supporting high-stakes missions overseas while raising a family, often with only limited insight into her husband’s real work on a daily basis. For her part Bev made sacrifices that contributed quietly to her husband’s successes, and thereby those of the Agency and thus to our Nation in more than one location abroad. That makes her a kind of “quiet heroine,” at least to those who know.

And Beverly had real courage, for example in one incident in Peshawar, Pakistan, getting herself out of a kidnapping attempt by four Anti-American Pakistani tribal types armed with AK-47 rifles.

At the fundament of her character Beverly was about love. One aspect of this is her love of animals. In retirement there did not seem to be a cause involving animals which she was not inclined to support- from elephant sanctuaries to lions and tigers, horse and donkey rescues, and every cause imaginable when it comes to dogs especially.

Her favorite canine was of course the Boxer. She grew-up with a Boxer named Jiggs, and was fond of recalling stories of his crazy antics. In her married life she had a total of nine Boxers, three of which were in male-female pairs, and which she hauled all over the world wherever assigned and whenever possible. Panama, Copenhagen, Berlin and Tokyo come to mind. Her ninth Boxer, Ashley, was acquired just six weeks before Beverly passed, and gave Beverly much comfort as her health declined.

Another of Beverly’s passions was plant life. Perhaps she inherited that from her father, but she like nothing so much as digging in the dirt and “planting stuff.” It was, she said, “therapeutic.” Her home was always filled with plants, and she had a special thing for African violets, some of which came from her mother decades ago, and which Beverly managed to keep alive through many moves.

Beverly was a Master Gardner in Caldwell County, North Carolina, and for many years served as Landscape Manager for Anchors Landing, the community in North Carolina where she lived from 2005 until moving to Viera in 2023.

Lastly, while not usually inclined to be a “joiner” in any kind of a group or club, she was never the less a Life Member of the Edgar Cayce Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), which has its headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She may have been prompted early-on by her mother, Joanne, who was a great fan of Edgar Cayce, “the Sleeping Prophet.” In any case, over the years Beverly attended many ARE seminars, both at Virginia Beach and elsewhere about the country. No “woo-woo” stuff for the scientifically inclined Beverly but, true to her gregarious nature, she enjoyed making friendships among the attendees and presenters as much or perhaps more than the actual subject of the seminars. Beverly was a good, kind and caring person, qualities that came through to everyone who met her.

Beverly is survived by her husband, James P. (“Pete”) McIllwain, daughters Shana Lea Leeper of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Megan Alisa McIllwain-Elliott of Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, as well as four granddaughters; Natalie and Mackenzie Leeper, Cerys and Anwen McIllwain Elliott, and her younger sister Pamela Cunningham of Houston, Texas.