Beverley Butler

1941 - 2025

Beverley Bowes Butler died Wednesday morning, September 3, 2025, at the mountain retreat created with her wife, Nathou Attinger in Schuyler, Va. During her last days alive, Beverley was attended by family and friends. Nellie, Jack and Peanuts (dogs); Gigi and Polly (cats); and Mussy the cockatoo were never far away. And, outside her window, the hummingbirds and butterflies fluttered amidst the cleome and hibiscus.

Beverley was born May 18, 1941 in Atlanta, Ga. to parents, Alice Allen Butler and Harry Thomas Butler. Beverley, her two brothers, and a sister grew up in Bradenton, Fla. Living on a bayou meant tree houses, boating, and water skiing, sometimes over alligators disguised as logs. Beverley was one of six girls in the class of 1959 at Manatee County High School who remained closely connected for decades, with phone calls and bedside visits only days before she died.

Beverley received a BS from Wesleyan College, a MSW from Florida State University, and the PhD in Healthcare Policy from Virginia Commonwealth University. After receiving her MSW, Beverley worked with families of children with disabilities at the Mailman Center for Child Development in Miami, Fla. In 1978, she was recruited to the pediatric faculty of the University of Virginia by Dr. William G. Thurman to be part of the team that created the Children and Youth Project, a component of President Johnson's War on Poverty Initiative. Beverley contributed to the UVA Medical Center until her retirement in 2007, developing programs at the Children and Youth project, the Children's Rehabilitation Center, throughout the inpatient hospital system, and the community.

Whatever the activity-networking, lobbying for programs, playing golf, counseling staff and friends, tennis, racquetball, fund-raising and arm-twisting volunteers for the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, financial advising, the B-line moves in yoga class, mentoring MSW students, sponsoring others-Beverley consistently made and maintained meaningful friendships.

During the past few years of ailing health, Beverley was cared for by Nathou at their garden retreat on the mountain. Beverley's core of dedicated friends delivered what Beverley commanded - from rides to appointments to setting up computer systems to deliveries of pizzas from Dr. Ho's, spicy praline pecans, or home-baked chocolate chip cookies. Even the health care professionals, from Beverley's favorite phlebotomist at Northridge to her trusted palliative care nurse, found themselves welcomed and enmeshed in her web. Beverley's dance card was always full. As was her capacity to offer advice, requested or not!

Beverley is survived by her beloved wife, Nathou Attinger; stepdaughter, Marina Macnamara (Asheville, N.C.), her husband, Wes Cramer and children, Claire and Finn; best friend, Sharon L Hostler (Charlottesville); godchildren, Kathleen Ann Dimock (Schuyler, Va.) and Dylan Alan Dimock (Wilmington, N.C.); brother, Allen Butler and wife Kaye (Bradenton, Fla. and Port Republic, Va.); nephew, Will Butler and wife, Tiffany, their children, George and Charlotte (Seattle); niece, Susan Butler Ciniglio and husband, Alejandro Ciniglio, and their children Emma, Alden and Callum (Princeton, N.J.); sister, Carol Butler Smith, niece, Kory Smith and nephew Dylan Smith (Weeki Wachee, Fla.). Beverley was predeceased by her parents, Harry and Alice Butler, and brother, Harry Thomas Butler, Jr.

The family remains grateful to the health care community of Northridge Internal Medicine, the Orthopedic Center, the University of Virginia, and the Hospice of the Piedmont. Instead of flowers, the widow suggests contributions to the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, 5450 Wheelers Cove, Shipman, VA, 22971. Cremation services were provided by the Wells Sheffield Funeral Chapel, Lovingston, VA.