Blessing Beasley

Blessing Beasley, 09/04/1920-06/03/2016 Blessing was aptly named as she was a blessing to all who knew her and a further blessing as the third baby born to Viola Gladys (Beck) and Price Beasley but the first to survive. Following her 11 more were born. Blessing knew she wanted to be a nurse at an early age. She graduated IU School of Nursing and furthered her education at Menninger Sanitarium in Topeka, KS. That early in her career her parents received a personal letter from Karl Menninger lauding how she earned the respect from her colleagues and her patients. When guns roared around the world her direction changed. Soon she was a 2nd Lt. Army Nurse at Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver. Then off to Oregon, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Two more degrees from the Catholic University of America in Nursing Education, and after several Midwest VA hospitals she was chosen to help open the first VA hospital in the south and choose her own staff. Life settled down but it has been said that she kept all her nurses on their toes in those organizational days. She rallied her staff to get the clinics and wards working for top service. Blessing received numerous honors and citations but kept her balance in her life with her love of family, friends, sports, traveling and her various and beloved dogs. She never forgot her Indiana home and upon the failing health of her mother became unofficially anointed matriarch of the family by her brothers and sisters. She was strong yet gentle making it easy for every family member to love her so. After retirement from James V. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa she volunteered at Tampa General, Lowry Park Zoo, Cancer Society and Friends of the Library. Blessing is survived by brothers, James A. Beasley (Carla) and Robert O. Beasley (Mary Lou); sisters, Annabelle May, Jeanette Fowler (Bob), Nancy Ann Hill (Ted), Sue Ellen West (Ed) and Rebecca Jo Bowen (Roger). She was preceded in death by her parents, Price and Viola; unnamed baby; sister, Evelyn Beasley; and brothers, David, Sweet Richard, Donald, and Ronald Beasley. Visitation will be today, Friday, June 10, 2016 from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Shirley Brothers Washington Memorial Chapel, 9606 E. Washington St. with funeral services Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Burial will be held near her long time friend, Dee Richardson at Glen Haven Memorial Gardens in Richmond.

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Blessing Beasley

September 4, 1920 - June 3, 2016