Lois Beasley

Lois Helen (James) Beasley, age 91, died peacefully at home on May 15, 2023, one year to the date that her beloved son-in-law, and my husband, Mick Checchi, died. She will always be remembered for that!

Mom was born in the small rural town of Castleberry in lower Alabama. She grew up there, was the valedictorian of her class and was close friends with Ed Beasley, who later became her high school sweetheart and eventual husband, to whom she was married for 59 years until his death in 2010.

Mom worked as a legal stenographer back then. She attended college at Troy State University, working on English major, but after a couple of years, decided to start a family. Later in life, her education would allow her to become a teacher in primary and secondary education.

Mom was very talented. She played many musical instruments, primarily the piano, sang quite beautifully in choirs and community choruses, acted in plays and musicals like Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls and The Music Man, and was known to kick a lovely leg in a chorus lineup. She was also a writer. I found pages and pages of stories, anecdotes and other musings that she had jotted down in notebooks and stray pieces of paper. They reveal a side of her that sadly, I didn't know very well.

Mom was a devout Baptist and was extremely active in all of the churches of which she was a member. I remember most vividly her involvement in many activities and events, especially the Sunshine Fellowship, at Bluff Park Baptist Church. She loved her church and she loved the Lord.

She was predeceased by her husband and my dad, Edward Jasper Beasley, whom she loved dearly and grieved until her death, her beloved son and my brother, Stephen Murray Beasley, her parents, James Clarence James and Lallie Eleanor Pharr, and many siblings (there were nine children in her family). She leaves behind her daughter ,that would be me, Susan Lynne Beasley Quenelle, two sisters, Voncille Kindig and Opal McQueen, and her daughter-in-law, Janine Beasley. She is also survived by 2 grandchildren, Kevin Beasley and Kara Smith (Steve), and two step grandchildren, Nora Middleton (Tony), and Michelle Gibson, and 8 great-grandchildren, Dayton, Branson, Bishop, Kylie, Cameron, Adrienne, Amelia, and Adalynn.

Funeral services will be held at Bluff Park Baptist Church on June 3, 2021 at 10:00 A.M. Family and close friends only visitation will be prior to the funeral services from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. Interment follows at the Currie-Jefferson Memorial Gardens on Highway 150. Officiating will be Pastor Tony Barber. Mom wanted flowers. Gardenias were one of her favorites. Bring them on!