Juanita Stewart Beall

Jaunita Stewart Beall Easton: Juanita Stewart Beall, a devoted wife, loving mother, and dedicated grandmother and great-grandmother passed away after a long life. She passed away in her cottage on Tred Avon River at Londonderry Retirement Community in Easton, Maryland on March 18. She was 94. Born June 27, 1917, in Monroe, Mississippi, she was the daughter of Julia Elizabeth Day and Edward Eugene Stewart. She moved to Magnolia, Mississippi at the age of four after her family home was destroyed by fire. She graduated from St. Mary's of the Pines in Chatawa, attended Mississippi State College for Women, where she met her husband, Benjamin S. Beall, III of Lexington who was attending Mississippi State. She graduated from Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, Missouri and received a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans. Afterwards Nita worked as a social worker and newspaper reporter in McComb, Mississippi. Nita married Ben on December 22, 1940. Nita and Ben resided for over 25 years in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania where he worked for General Electric while she raised four children. There she was a member of St. Thomas of Villanova parish and was involved with the League of Women Voters and various neighborhood and school organizations. Later they lived for more than 22 years in Lake Forest, Illinois where she was a member of St. Mary's parish while Ben continued his career in the electrical and heating manufacturing industries. Upon retirement Nita and Ben moved to Pass Christian, Mississippi on the Gulf Coast where they resided for over 20 years as members of St. Paul's parish and the Pass Christian Yacht Club until their home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Nita loved the places where they had lived and the many places where they had traveled. They had a vacation condo in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where Nita skied until she was 80 and a cottage on a key off Little Abaco in the Bahamas where she spear fished with friends and family, including her grandchildren, for 25 years. Nita loved to play duplicate bridge, garden and to read. She is fondly remembered by her family for telling stories of life in Magnolia, one of which was the habit of calling the delivery stable and going to Mass on Sundays in a horse and buggy. After the devastating loss from Hurricane Katrina, Nita and Ben moved to St. Michaels, Maryland to be close to family on the Eastern Shore. Ben, her husband of almost 70 years, passed away in June of 2010. Nita, until her death, has been residing at Londonderry and was a parishioner at Sts. Peter and Paul in Easton, and a member of St. Michael's Yacht Club. Nita is survived by her four children: sons, Ben Beall IV and wife Millie of Steamboat Springs, Colorado and grandchildren, Ben V. and Rodney and Stewart L. Beall and wife Bobbi, also of Steamboat Springs and grandchildren Lindsey and Stewart Jr.; and daughters, Julia Beall Passyn and husband Theodore of Trappe, MD and grandchildren Andrew, Ted, Katherine, John, Benjamin, Julia, Juanita, Elizabeth, and Tallulah and Juanita Edelmann, of Kaikoura, New Zealand and grandchildren Shayder and Gemma; and fifteen great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by a brother, Edward Day Stewart, and a sister Julia Day Neill, a grandchild, Michael Stewart Passyn and a great grandchild Thomas Arthur Gravely, Jr. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, March 26, 2012 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Easton at 11am, where a visitation will be held from 10am - 11am. Interment will be at the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Maryland next to her husband Ben. Arrangements by Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home, P.A. in Easton. For online tributes, please visit www.fhnfuneralhome.com