Beverly Ann Spiess

82 year old Beverly Ann Spiess died peacefully at her home in Carrolls, WA with her husband and children at her side.

Beverly (Bev) was born on February 16, 1929 in Hopewell, NY. Her parents were Ruth Mary (Sandman) and James Ernest Dingman. Though she had four older siblings—Walter, Shirley, Carol and Muriel—she had little opportunity to live with them and enjoyed no real sense of family as a child. Her father died when she was one year old, and the Dingmans, as Bev recalls in her memoirs, “became a family broken apart, seeing little of each other and living together infrequently for short periods of time the remainder of our growing years.” From this tragic beginning Bev developed a profound and unyielding belief in the importance and value of Family.

Bev spent the rest of her life building the family she “never really had.” She married Lt. Cdr. Morris K. Spiess Sr. in Corpus Christi, TX on August 11, 1947. Together they had six children, 13 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. Besides loving her family, Bev enjoyed gardening, sewing, cooking and baking. During her married years, she baked thousands of pies and cookies plus loads of home-made bread and gave an infinite number of hugs.

Beverly had a cheerful, infectious spirit that touched everyone whom she knew. Those who remember her will always recall her warm smile, loving arms, and endless, unconditional love.

Donations can be made to the American Cancer Society.

Funeral services will be held at Price-Helton funeral home in Auburn, WA at 11 AM on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 with Reception to follow.