Patricia Ann Beazley

Long-time local artist Patricia Ann McNamara Beazley died on February 5, of complications resulting from a series of strokes. Pat was born in 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, the oldest of five children born to Alice Haymann and Frank McNamara. Pat graduated from Mercy High School in 1948; although she had been offered entry into a special degree program at the University of Chicago, and a scholarship to St. Xaviers University, family circumstances required other choices. During her teens and early twenties, Pat worked at a variety of jobs, including a high-school summer job at the Cracker Jack factory, where she had the enviable task of putting the prizes in the boxes. She married the love of her life, Ben Beazley, in 1952. Pat and Ben had four children, living in Chicago after brief stints in Clinton, Indiana and in Southwest Harbor, Maine during Bens military service. The family moved to Toledo in 1963, living on Hopewell Place in Old Orchard for over 40 years. Although Pat had to forego opportunities for formal education, she was an avid reader, brilliant and talented, and she believed strongly in the philosophy of bloom where you are planted. When confronted with a problem, her most typical behavior was to learn more about it. Thus, when Pat became pregnant with her first child in 1952, Ben gave her Grantly Dick-Reads book, Childbirth Without Fear Lamaze was not yet heard of, and Pat insisted that her doctor read it also. The unmedicated delivery went so well that Pat walked out of the delivery room right after the birth. Pats knowledge of childbirth came in handy a few years later, when she delivered the baby of a new neighbor who had an unexpectedly short labor while their street was under construction. The construction workers helped carry Pat back and forth across the street as she gathered the needed supplies, and the baby girl was given Patricia as her middle name in Pats honor. Similarly, when Pats mother developed colon cancer in the early 1970s, Pat read all about the importance of fiber in the diet, and, she began to put bran into every dish she made, until she finally put so much bran into a meatloaf that even their dog wouldnt eat it. At this point, she began to experiment more seriously, and she developed a delicious recipe for bran bread that her family still makes to this day. Ben, of course, is more partial to her white bread, which her friends often refer to as Christmas bread or Beazley bread. When Pat moved to Toledo, she continued the service to others that she had begun in Chicago. She volunteered with Catholic Charities, Gesu Church, and the League of Women Voters. Through her work with the League, she was active in the campaign to establish Wildwood Metropark, and she also became involved in civil rights projects and Toledos Human Relations Advisory Board. In the 1960s, when Toledos Fair Housing Center began to investigate housing discrimination in Toledo, she served as one of its first decoys for the Centers investigation of discrimination in rental decisions. She also worked as the producer of the Leagues public television program Voters Voice, on which local candidates answered questions in quasi-debate settings. She often brought her children with her to the tapings, giving them a birds-eye view of local politics. In 1968, when her son, Michael, was 14, she introduced him to fellow Leaguer and local politico Katie Eberle, encouraging Mike to work on Bobby Kennedys presidential campaign. The daughter of an amateur artist, Pat began her own career by painting a mural on the wall of her kitchen in Chicago and then her dining room in Toledo. In her 30s and 40s, Pat started taking art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art, and she soon realized the special talent she had for portraiture. She took studio classes with Toledos Walter Chapman and with Daniel Greene of New York. Although she became a professional portrait artist, she also donated many portraits and gave them as gifts to family and friends. During family visits, Pat would often spend much of her time working on a portrait of one or another of the children in the family, and she did portraits of many of her 58 nieces and nephews. She thought the best time to complete a childs portrait was at about the age of 6, and she believed firmly that the children benefitted from the focused attention of the artist. She loved the honest responses that she got to the questions she asked, including her favorite: who is the meanest kid in your class? She recounted with delight the story of the little boy who sat thoughtfully for a moment after this question and then piped up, I think I am! She would always add, I think he was, too. In addition to portraits in pastel, Pat did watercolors and acrylics, and she was active with Athena and the Toledo Artists Club. Pat exhibited her works at galleries in Toledo, in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and in Encinatis, California. In 1989, she had pastels selected to appear in the American Pastel Society Show in New York, New York and in the Kansas Pastel Society International Show. Two of her works were selected to appear at the Toledo Museum of Art, in the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition the May Show. Her work appeared in numerous shows locally at the Museum, the Spectrum Gallery, The Toledo Artists Club, Athena, and the Garden Gallery of Crosby Gardens. She won a Grumbacher Bronze in 1985, and she won numerous best of show and peoples choice awards. Pat did some gardening, although her children noted that her main goal in choosing flowers was identifying those that would be good subjects for watercolors. Likewise, when Pat went to the produce department, the onions she bought were much more likely to end up in a still life than on a dinner plate. Many Toledoans see one of her works daily: the delivery trucks of Al Peake and Sons Daughter, Too carry the portrait Pat did of Daughter Too eating an apple. In 2010, Pats children hosted a small retrospective of her work, gathering about 150 pieces from their homes and the homes of friends. They estimate that the retrospective represented perhaps a tenth of her total output. Her professional portraits and her Captured Moments hang in dozens of homes across the United States, and formal portraits hang at Gesu Churchs Sullivan Center, the University of Toledo and The Ohio State University. Even as Pats art work gained precedence, service was still a significant part of her life. She did home visits for Welcome Wagon, and she delivered meals for Mobile Meals for over thirty years. With her husband, Ben, she read aloud on the Sight Centers radio station for people with visual impairments. Pat and Ben were also active in the Christian Family Movement from the 1960s on, and they helped to develop the pre-Cana program for Gesu Parish and the Diocese of Toledo. Pat and Ben led Engaged Encounter weekend retreats, and they counseled engaged couples through their church for many years. One of Pats favorite recreations was reading. She was a regular at the library, and she usually had two or three books going, with murder mysteries a favorite. Her elegant home was filled with her art, and she hosted many parties and showers over the years. Although she hated leaving home, she loved her travels with Ben. Especially in their retirement years, they took many wonderful trips with friends Therese and Don Rohan, Kenny and Mary Ann Culpert, and Jack and Mary Ellen Brunner. Pat relished her annual visits to Hilton Head Island, where she spent many a wonderful afternoon riding bicycles on the beach or building sand castles with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Pat was preceded in death by her parents; by her son, John, who died of meningitis at the age of two; by her sister-in-law, Ann Beazley Rowe; and by her brother-in-law, Joseph Panice. She is survived by her loving husband, Ben Beazley; by their children, Trish Beazley Sanders Dick, Mike Beazley Juliann Wood, and Mary Beth Beazley David Pillion; by her brothers Frank McNamara Pat and Jack McNamara Joan; and sisters Alice Lavin Chuck and Mary Panice; by grandchildren Lisa Beazley Kling T.J., Jeff Beazley Diana, Sarah Abu-Absi Dan, Kate Beazley, Bethany Sanders, Ben Sanders Allyson, Laura Sanders Dave, Betsy Pillion, and Annie Pillion; and great-grandchildren Kylie, Andrew, Evan, and Mathew Beazley; Grady and Seamus Kling; and Sam and Mabel Abu-Absi. She also leaves her beloved sisters- and brothers-in-law: Agnes and Bob ODonnell, Joe and Pat Beazley, Helen and Joe Dunn, Ed and Renata Beazley, Rich and Judy Beazley, and Kathy and Ray Perek, as well as dozens of nieces and nephews and many dear friends. The family wishes to thank in particular Carol Kraus, Mary Ellen Brunner, Mary Ann Culpert, Sally Leopold, and Eileen Korhumel, who provided weekly respite care for Pat in her last years, and also the many others whose visits brightened Pats days. Those who wish to make contributions in Pats honor may consider Gesu Church, Hospice of Northwest Ohio, or the Toledo Museum of Art. The family will accept visitors at Walker Funeral Home on Sylvania Avenue on Sunday, February 9, from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Services will be at Gesu Church on Monday, February 10, at 11:00 a.m., with family visitation beginning at the church at 10:00 a.m. that morning. Interment will be private.