Terry Anne Beattie-Earley

1948 - 2014

Terry Anne Beattie-Earley, a long-time resident of Merion Station, succumbed at home following a decade-long struggle with neurological diseases on February 19th in the late afternoon. She would have been 66 on March 3rd. Born in 1948 to Anne L. Beattie and George T. Beattie, the youngest child of four, she grew up on Winding Way, attended Modern Mercy Academy, and enjoyed being the "apple of her parents eye." After their divorce at age nine, she moved to Scranton with her mother; later, she rejoined her father and his new wife, Lorraine, to live in Wynnewood. Attending Lower Merion High School, Terry participated in girls lacrosse , the school newspaper, the chorus, Future Teachers of America, and various foreign language programs. She graduated in 1966. Her education continued at Penn State University where she majored in Spanish and minored in chemistry, graduating in 1970. Following graduation, Terry worked at several major Philadelphia law firms where she was a project administrator and supported large-scale trial projects. Later, she worked at Colonial Penn Insurance Company in the customer information systems area until she married William M Earley in September of 1974. After several moves with her husband to Columbus, Ohio, Washington D.C. and Rochester, New York---a return to Merion occurred during Thanksgiving of 1983. It was there she began restoring her house, mere blocks from where she grew up, and two decades later crammed with days, nights, and week-ends full of plastering, scraping, hammering, and painting, she and her husband quietly had finished reviving an old masterpiece----along the way, she worked with her husband for over twenty years in his Wall Street consulting business and traveled extensively in its support. She loved dark chocolate ice cream with almond chunks, Zero Mostel, Wigwam socks, cool breezy autumn nights, tea tree oil, Broadway plays, speaking in Spanish, Newfoundland dogs, warm ginger ale, mystery novels, shoveling snow, astronomy, large Mark Cross leather hand bags, Gene Wilder, any New York Times crossword puzzle, Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, calves liver, the Carol Burnett show, hooped earrings, purple iris, new sneakers, home-made onion rings, quilting her own designs, the Hana Highway---she especially loved Willy Wonka. A long-time friend of Bill Wilson, Terry faced life with energy and a positive spirit that enabled her to make the best of any situation, and to keep pushing, never complaining, and always looking for the next day. Her journey through the last eleven years was no different, no matter how winding or bumpy, she faced every day with a determined spirit to make the best of that day. Services were private and her ashes will be spread in the Molokai Straits so she can always be with the whales. She will be missed by many.