Beth Valentine Caldwell

Beth Valentine Caldwell was born to Hugo Valentine and Joan Morris on July 19 (her father’s birthday), 1957 in New Britain, Connecticut. She passed away on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia. Beth lived a life full of service to her civic and religious community. She graduated in 1975 from St. Paul Catholic High School in Connecticut and studied nursing and media, communications, and visual arts at Pace University in New York. She also studied computer programming at the Morse School of Business in Hartford, CT. She initially wanted to join the Navy but ended up serving as a military personnel clerk. After moving to the Washington, DC area, Beth served her community in a variety of different ways. She was a volunteer at the National Cathedral for 12 years, welcoming guests and giving tours. To serve underprivileged members of her community, she studied medical insurance billing and coding through Fairfax County’s adult and community education program. From 2004 to 2008, she served as a medication aide through Fairfax-Falls Church Community Service Board, providing alternate funding for pharmaceuticals. And near the end of her life, she served as a ride coordinator for the Shepherd Center. On January 13, 2001, Beth was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became an integral part of the Church’s community in the Northern Virginia area. Thanks to her love of family history research, she worked as a church service missionary through FamilySearch for more than 11 years. She was famous in her community for helping others research their family history and single handedly indexing more than 650,000 names, extracting vital information from historical records and putting them into a digital format so they could be searched by genealogical researchers through FamilySearch databases. Despite significant health problems that limited her mobility, Beth remained independent and determined to contribute to her community until the last days of her life. She was friendly, witty, and an enthusiastic conversationalist. She was unmaterialistic, gave tips to friends on how to save money, and generously shared her wealth of information on county/city services and programs available to any citizen. She loved reading and watching YouTube videos of talking parrots. She had a sense of humor, teased strangers and friends alike, and had a gift for reaching out to others with handicaps and disabilities. She was like an aunt to the children in her congregation and the children of all her friends, watching them grow up, giving out candy and hugs at church, and gifting many of them their “first cars” (a toy or matchbox car). The kids at church called her “the Candy Lady.” She is survived by her mother, Joan Morris; her siblings, Juliann Daley, Todd Valentine and Chris Valentine; two nephews and a niece. She was preceded in death by her father Hugo. She will be missed by all who knew her and remembered for saying, “I am blessed with the best friends, both those I have met face to face and those I have yet to meet.” A funeral service will occur Thursday, May 9, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at External Service Location, 2034 Great Falls St, Falls Church, VA 22043.