Mary Williams Beane

BEANE, Mary Elizabeth Williams, died on April 15, 2010. Mary Beane was born August 10, 1926, to Charles H. and Daisy Wood Williams in Fleeton, Virginia, the youngest of six children. She grew up on this peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay, a community of watermen who depended on the bay for their livelihood, and which the children depended on for an endless source of fun, curiosity and food during those Depression days. She graduated from Reedville High School in 1943, and moved to wartime Baltimore to be with her siblings. She graduated from Baltimore Business College in 1944 and was employed at the Department of the U.S. Navy, under the leadership of Richard M. Nixon. After her fiance returned from war in the Pacific Theater, she married Straughan Beane on December 14, 1947, and resided over a country store in the Northern Neck of Virginia in a rural farming community called Miskimon. Mary and Straughan raised two children, ran the general store and attended Hopewell Methodist Church. As a young mother, she was active in her children's education, oftentimes including the neighbor's children in swimming lessons, ice skating on the local ponds, sleigh riding, making Halloween costumes, birthday parties, and boating on the Great Wicomico. She and her husband were active in the Acca Shrine, Rappatomac Shrine Club, Hopewell Church and the Richmond Food Dealer's Association. When her husband died, Mary Beane continued operation of the store and became post mistress of the Miskimon Post Office. The fourth class post office was closed in 1976 and storekeeping had changed. Mary Beane returned to the Chesapeake Bay, moving to Sandy Point near Wicomico Church, Virginia, to start again. Her new home was across Ingram Bay near the mouth of the Great Wicomico and Cockrell's Creek from her childhood home of Fleeton. The great Chesapeake lay before her. She took up a life of gardening, "socializing on the Point," Bridge club, square dancing and painting. She took second place in a Rappahannock Art League Exhibition. The water was her home and she spent many hours enjoying the company of friends, sitting on her deck by the bay. When her son returned to the Northern Neck to begin his career in pharmacy, she provided staunch support as bookkeeper and participated in his business ventures by operating Grumpy's Pizza in Lively, Virginia. Mary Beane was a member of St. Mary's Episcopal, Kenwood Presbyterian, Hopewell Methodist and Wicomico Episcopal. Mary Beane was a breast cancer survivor, and an inspiration to all who knew her for her love of life, belief in God and love of her country. Mary Beane was preceded in death by her parents and her siblings, Thelma, Orvetta, Elvira and Charles. She is survived by her two children, a son, Thomas Straughan Beane Jr.; and daughter, Mary Bonita Beane; and her sister, Cornelia W. Brown. Graveside services will be held 2 p.m. Sunday, April 18, at the Beane Cemetery at Miskimon, with The Rev. David May officiating. Friends may call 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 17, at the Currie Funeral Home, Kilmarnock. Memorial contributions may be made to Beane's Cemetery, 6302 Courthouse Road, Heathsville, Virginia 22473.


This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.