Belvadene Jolliff

1921 - 2025

Belvadene Jolliff

August 23, 1921 - August 31, 2025

Belvadene Jolliff, who celebrated a happy 104th birthday on August 23rd with family and her many Givens Highland Farms friends, passed on peacefully on August 31st with the love and support of her daughter, Beth at her side, after a three-day illness.

Born in 1921, the daughter of Vernell and Lulu Holmes, Belvadene was raised on a farm in northwest Missouri. Her life has seen so many changes from the early years when her family went to town in a horse drawn wagon to seeing a man setting foot on the moon, and so much more. During WWII, Belvadene was a "Rosie the Riveter" at an airplane defense plant in Cincinnati, Ohio. Later she moved to Bloomington, Illinois where she met her husband, Leonard Hillman, with whom she had two children, Bob and Beth.

Belvadene spent the majority of her career in food service management at Illinois State University. Simultaneously, for a number of years she owned a business in her home which she had converted to off campus housing for 27 girls.

In 1982, Belvadene met and married Jack Jolliff. She spent 32 years in a loving family with Jack and his children and grandchildren. As the children were growing up, grandmother Belvadene always had baking or craft projects to delight them when they came to visit.

Since 2015, Belvadene has made her home at Givens Highland Farms in Black Mountain, North Carolina where she moved to live near her daughter who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. After his retirement, son Bob Hillman, moved from east central Illinois to Asheville to join his mother and sister.

Belvadene is survived by her daughter, Beth Johnson, as well as her stepson, Jack Jollff, his wife Marilyn, and their four children, eleven grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.

Belvadene's life epitomized "that gentle beam of living Love," as expressed in a poem, "Christmas Morn," by Mary Baker Eddy. Belvadene expressed love to everyone she met and is in turn beloved by us all. Thank you all for embracing her in your hearts.

Her memorial service will be held at 12:00 p.m., on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at Kibler Brady Ruestman Memorial Home in Bloomington. Visitation will be held from 11:00 a.m., until the time of the service. Interment will be at East Lawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery.

Online condolences and memories of Belvadene may be left for her family at kiblerbradyruestman.com.