Beverly Ann Bone

Beverly Ann Kelley Bone, loving and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, family member, and friend passed away on Friday, July 21st, 2023. Beverly was born on May 3, 1940, at St Joseph’s Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas to Phillip and Mary Alice Kelley, the eldest of their three children. The family lived in Glenwood until making a permanent home in Mt. Ida when Beverly was seven years old. Beverly enjoyed a magical childhood surrounded by her large, extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, playing basketball for Mt. Ida High School, and skiing, and swimming at Lake Ouachita.

After graduating from Mt. Ida High School in 1958, she attended Henderson State Teachers College for a year before transferring to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. There she became a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority, graduated with a degree in Home Economics in 1962, and cemented her status as an ardent Razorbacks fan.

After graduation, she began her career as a Home Service Advisor with Arkansas Power & Light in El Dorado in September of 1962. It was there that she met a young engineer from Prairie County named Don Bone. The boy from the delta and the girl from the mountains were a perfect match and were married in Mt. Ida on November 16, 1963. After honeymooning in the Bahamas, the couple moved to Hot Springs where their two children were born in the very same hospital in which Beverly had been born. Don and Beverly, lifelong Methodists, joined First United Methodist Church in Hot Springs where Beverly served as Director of Christian Education and Director of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.

In 1975 the young family moved to North Little Rock. Beverly and Don joined Lakewood United Methodist Church where Beverly sang in the Chancel Choir and cared for children at Mother’s Day Out. She and Don were members of the George Martin Sunday school class where she played piano each week.

In 1980, bringing her eye for comfortable, practical, beautiful interior design, Beverly began working at Creative Cabinetry in Little Rock as a Kitchen Design Consultant and Office Manager. Beverly took great joy in volunteering for the Arkansas Symphony Designer House, at the Arkansas Rep where she read new play scripts, and at St. Luke’s Respite Care Center where she played the piano and provided music therapy for the residents.

In 1987, with both of their children away at college, Beverly and Don moved to Forrest City. Their sojourn in Forrest City was brief, lasting just shy of four years, but they were still able to make many new friends in their brief time living on Crowley’s Ridge. In 1991 the couple moved back to their life in North Little Rock, where they remained for over 31 years. In their retirement, Beverly and Don traveled the world, enjoying trips to Europe, Alaska, Hawaii, and across the continental United States.

Most of all, Beverly loved her friends and family. Of all the places she traveled, Beverly’s happiest place was Lake Ouachita, surrounded by family and friends. She practiced her faith by fallowing the commandment to love one another, which she did with intention and joy. She spent her life cultivating and tending to her family, her friends, and her neighbors, all of whom will grieve the passing of this kind and generous woman. Her dearest treasures were her grandchildren whose arrival she anticipated with great fervor, and whom she doted upon in equal measure.

Beverly leaves behind to follow in her practice of loving kindness her son Greg Bone of Dallas, TX; daughter Lauren Bone Noble, her husband Chris, and their children Daisy and Willow of Oxford, MS; brother Buddy Kelley and his wife Sarah of Anna, TX; sister Janet Lynn and husband Larry of Gunter, TX; cousins, nieces and nephews, and her vast community of friends. Beverly was preceded in death by her parents, Phillip and Mary Alice Kelley. Her husband, Don, preceded her in death by less than four months. Though she will be deeply missed, we are comforted that she is reunited with the love of her life.

Beverly was a lifelong Methodist and a member of Lakewood United Methodist Church in North Little Rock for over 40 years. A service will be held at Lakewood United Methodist Church on Saturday, July 29, 2023. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Sparkman-Hillcrest.com for the Bone family.