Beverly Marie Kemp

1943 - 2025

Beverly Marie Morgan was born April 27, 1943 in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Her father was a Civil Engineer who helped dredge the channels for Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor. They returned state side when she was six months old with flotation devices on her baby carriage in case of a Japanese torpedo attack. After living in Burien Heights, WA (now the location of Sea-Tac Airport) they moved to Pleasantville, NY where she graduated from High School in 1961. She met her future husband, Alfred Dennis Kemp, Jr., when two USN sailors wandered into the same bar where she was celebrating her 18th birthday. They were married in Grand Junction, CO on Dec. 29, 1962.

First stationed together at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the Bay area, she later drove across the country to Charleston, SC to meet Denny who had help take the USS Andrew Jackson

(SSBN 619) on its commissioning cruise thru the Panama Canal. From there they were transferred to NRF, Idaho Falls for the commissioning of the S5G reactor project. There she met a woman who was picking out a design on a flour sack to match her dress. She made many friends that lasted throughout her life. Oh, and gave birth to their first child, Michael.

Next, they were transferred to Groton, CT where their second son, Scott, was born, back to Mare Island and a return to Groton. From there it was off to La Maddelena, Sardinia, Italy stationed on the USS Howard W. Gilmore, a forward deployed submarine tender at the height of the Cold War. The Gilmore would travel around the Med on show the flag tours, which the boys could go on as dependent cruises. Bev would fly to meet the boys in Athens, Barcelona, Naples, Genoa, Cannes and Algeciras, Spain. They also went across the straights to Bonifacio, Corsica an ancient lair of the infamous Corsican Pirates.

From there, Bev got to go back to Hawaii, when Denny was stationed at Pearl Harbor. They served together for nine years as Dennys navy career ended and both boys graduated HS from Punahou School.

At retirement, they chose to return to Idaho Falls in 1988, when Denny got a job with Newport News Reactor Services at the site. Bev began to work at Trinity United and began to become involved with a variety of outreach organizations such as FISH, the Progressive Dinner, Harbor House, and the Interfaith Community Service Project. At Trinity she became the SPRC and helped found and organize a soup kitchen in the basement of the church.

She would live In Idaho Falls, making many trips around the US, including Alaska, Mississippi River Cruises and genealogy research trips to Indiana, New York and the Carolinas. Internationally, they would visit China, Brazil, Russia and Canada until she passed away on September 24, 2025.

There will be a memorial service at Trinity United in Idaho Falls on Friday, Oct. 3rd at 11 am. In lieu of flowers, donations would be appreciated to FISH in her name.