Beverly Jeanne Lingard Capell

BEVERLY JEANNE LINGARD CAPELL

Cedar Park, Texas

Beverly Jeanne Elmore was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on Oct. 12, 1931. Of 12 children born to their parents, Jesse and Lilly Belle Elmore, eight survived infancy. In addition to her parents, her brothers, Claude, Floyd, Lloyd, Paul and Dale, and sisters, Delores and Marlys, all preceded

her in death. She is survived by her four children, Laurie Kadlec (Craig) of Robins, Iowa, Mark Lingard (Estela) of Cedar Park, Texas, Kermit Lingard (Shelley) of Berryville, Ark., and Kimberlee Nelson (Roger) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She also is survived by nine grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Mom grew up during the Great Depression and when speaking of it, would often say "there was nothing really 'great' about it," though her parents were able to find work and the family gardened and sold eggs to help out friends and neighbors who found themselves in worse straits.

Beverly married Merritt William Lingard in 1951 and set about raising their four children. In 1969, Beverly and Merritt were divorced. In 1971, Beverly met and married John R. Capell. John passed away in 2004. With her marriage to John, a son and daughter-in-law were added to Mom's brood, Kent and Melissa Egy of Blue Springs, Mo., then added another two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Kent passed away in the fall of 2019.

As the fates would have it, Beverly, John and Merritt developed a great friendship and co-ventured the startup of Professional Real Estate Delivery Service, later to be referred to as simply PRED. In the early days of PRED, although Mom and John could not do the heavy lifting at the print shop, they would deliver our weekly issues and never missed a yard sale along the way.

Mom made many, many friends along her life's pathway and maintained lifelong friendships. She experienced the joy and heartache life offers as so many of them passed on before her.

Beverly was, in many ways, a walking miracle. She survived polio as a youngster and in her 30s survived life-threatening cancer and followed that up with triple bypass heart surgery in 1974. As the years passed, she developed other maladies (aside from raising four wildlings), including diabetes.

As a result of her heart condition, Mom retired from Quaker Oats in 1973. Among the different jobs, she worked in the lab while Quaker was introducing new cereal product lines. She was a taste-tester, which delighted her kids, as she was able to bring home samples. She was a union steward at Quaker and a member of Local 110.

She loved to travel and ended up seeing much of the world. She loved boating and camping and in the last 20 years has made many road trips with her daughters Laurie and Kim, and has had an opportunity to reunite with her nieces Jody, Suzanne and Mimi. One of the last of these road trips found her learning pole dancing at the Bunny Ranch in Reno, Nev., where, at the age of 85, she was the toast of the house and was offered a job. She said she would have made an excellent "madam."

Mom had a heart as big as Texas and had a generous spirit that saw no bounds. Her laughter was contagious and through all of life's ups and downs, she managed a smile and words of encouragement to anyone feeling low.

Politically, Mom was a lifelong Democrat and worked actively with the Mondale campaign in the 1980s. It was her great joy to meet and shake the hand of Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

There is so much to say when telling the story of this extraordinary woman, daughter, sister, mother, aunt and friend. Her presence will be missed, but she will live on in our hearts and minds always.

A private family service was held on June 23 and due to COVID-19 restrictions, a celebration of Beverly's life will be held at a later date.