Beverly Marie Therese Terranova

The rosary for Beverly will be held Sunday, October 15, 2023 at 3:00 PM at Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel, 7301 East Lancaster, Fort Worth, Texas 76112. The funeral mass will be celebrated Monday, October 16, 2023 at 11:00 AM at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church, 1200 South Davis Drive, Arlington, Texas 76013. Interment will immediately follow the mass at the Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, Texas 75211.

Beverly was born in Denver, Colorado to Nicholas and Carmella Ochiato on February 25, 1933. She graduated Denver North High School. She married Gerald Joseph Terranova on November 25, 1956 in Denver, Colorado.

She was a parishioner of St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Arlington in the Diocese of Fort Worth for close to sixty years. She was active in her church as a leader in the Catholic Scripture Study in its earliest years in the 1990s and again in the 2010s.

She was a founding teacher of Mid-Cities Learning center, later Treetops School, whose mission was to help all children, especially those with learning disabilities. There she taught Montessori to children ages two through third grade for seven years.

She advocated tirelessly for the welfare of those with learning disabilities and later for those with mental illness as well. Her advocacy in the 1970s led to more flexibility in special education options in the local school district.

She was a long-time member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She helped especially with support groups for families and friends of those experiencing mental illness, as well as organizing and providing information on services available to them.

She was co-chair for seven years, together with Jim Swinney, of the Consumer Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services of Tarrant County (MHMR) and served as a board member for almost twenty years. Her volunteer work as co-chair and the work of the committee included recommending, evaluating and helping to develop crises services, services for employment and housing, peer support initiatives, reviewing and approving proposals for changes in services and annual budgets, as well as meeting with local hospital, court and police officials in order to help them develop policies and procedures to aid those experiencing mental illness. She also travelled to Austin to speak before the legislature about important legislation and budgetary issues.

She was honored for her service at the MHMR annual banquet in 2011.

Beverly is preceded in death by her husband, Gerald Joseph Terranova, her parents, Nicholas and Carmella Ochiato, and her brothers, Leslie Ochiato and Donald Ochiato.

Beverly is survived by her sister Jacqueline, daughter Marie and her good friend Michael Bridges, son Gerald and his wife Susan, son Nicholas and his wife Cindy Yowell, son Michael, her granddaughters Rachel Evans and Sarah Packham with her husband Jacob, grandson Tyler Terranova, and great-granddaughters Rebekah and Gloria Packham.

Memorials may be given to Volunteers of America at www.voatx.org who have made it possible for Beverly’s daughter to live a good and independent life.

The family of Beverly Terranova extends their sincere thanks to the residents and staff of Parsons House, an assisted living community in Dallas, Texas, who made Beverly’s last few months more delightful and more beautiful than they otherwise would have been.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.shannonrosehill.com for the Terranova family.