Rebekah V Pearson

Rebekah Collins Pearson (Becky) passed away on November 1, 2026, in Annandale Virginia. Services will be held at East Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Kingsport TN on Friday, November 13th, 2026, at 3:00 pm. A link for a streaming version of the service will be issued later. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

Rebekah was born in Bristol, Virginia on February 24, 1953, and grew up in Blountville TN. She lived most of her adult life in Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland. Rebekah is predeceased by her father Harry Collins, her mother Alfreda Collins, her sisters Rosemary and Harriet, and a baby brother. She is survived by her sister Hannah, her brother David, her nieces Amanda and Abigail, her nephews Adam, Solomon, Luke, Davie and Patrick, her cousin Roger, and her former husband John Pearson. She married John on April 24, 1983, in San Francisco, California on top of Twin Peaks.

Rebekah went to work right after high school. She never took time off except for vacations. Her first job was with the Kingsport Press in Kingsport TN. In 1979, she left East Tennessee for good and moved to the Northern Virginia area. She started as a clerk at the Department of Agriculture. Her first positions were administrative but she later moved up to office space planner and program analyst positions. She was especially proud of her 33 years of federal service. In addition to the Department of Agriculture, she worked at the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the General Services Administration.

Rebekah lived in Northern Virginia many years and was a member of Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Virginia. Around 2010, she moved to Cove Point in Southern Maryland where she attended the Patuxent Presbyterian church. She volunteered at the Cove Point Light House and the annual Artfest of Calvert County. In 2019 because of increasing dementia, she returned to Northern Virginia to live with John. She entered memory care in February 2021.

Rebekah was a very outgoing and active person. She liked swimming, tennis, and camping. She was a swimming instructor for many years. She taught all ages and disabled as well. She liked rainbows very much and the beauty of nature. She enjoyed traveling to new places. Her major trips were to Switzerland, Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, Ireland in addition to multiple trips to San Francisco and visits to multiple states. She liked giving parties. She loved Halloween and usually had a Halloween party. She was a joyful and grateful person. She was loyal to her parents and loved her relatives and friends very much.

Rebekah didn’t go on missions or work in soup kitchens. But she touched a lot of people. Each of us knows Rebekah was special. I honestly believe thousands of people had a better day because of Rebekah. She kidded around a lot but she actually lived her principles. She was not afraid to interact with complete strangers. She approached life from an assumption that most people are pretty good and it is safe to talk to them or even joke with them.

She always tried to be the peacemaker. I love political debates. But if she heard me debating her friends, she would take me aside and say: Stop that. You know better. At restaurants, she would invariably ask me, how much tip are you leaving? Often she would say, “well, that’s not enough. Let’s raise it.”

In 2009, Rebekah learned I was thinking of placing my 99 year-old mother in a nursing home in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with no relatives nearby. Even though we were divorced at the time, Rebekah said: that’s not acceptable. Find a nursing here and bring her back here so we can visit regularly and look after her. Bring her back on a private jet with a nurse if necessary. I said, yes, of course. You are right and I did.

In 2011 and 2012 we went to Australia and then Ireland. These were her lifetime bucket list choices. The trips were great. I could see she was starting to struggle mentally. But I know my main feeling when I got back from both trips. I was just so proud to be with her. It was the way she treated everyone she met along the way – the airline attendants, the cab drivers, the hotel clerks, the maids, the retail clerks, the tour guides. She was always upbeat with them. She joked around with them and complemented them. They must have felt: Gee, Some Americans are sure friendly.

In the later years I had to help her with customer service calls concerning her cable service, her bank, or her propane delivery or something else. At the end of the call, Rebekah would invariably say, Now I would like the name of your supervisor. And the customer rep would say Oh. And Rebekah would say: to tell them how Wonderful you are. Rebekah’s instinct was to lift up people not tear them down or ignore them. Time and again I am confident she made the day for a customer service rep.

We went to the local Panera Bread a lot in 2019 and 2020. One employee – Sarah – started saying when we came in: Oh, my favorite couple. Now I know she didn’t say that because of me. It was Rebekah’s smile and friendly words. Rebekah would say, now John let’s give her a little gift today. She did that a lot actually. If she saw an older worker who appeared to be struggling at BJ’s or other store, she would frequently offer them a little assistance.

On her last visit to her beach home in Lusby Maryland in 2019 (she didn’t know it was her last visit), her final act was to deliver a large chocolate bar to aging neighbors who she thought needed cheering up.

By 2020, her writing ability was poor. But in late 2020, I asked her to autograph my favorite picture of her – the one in a swimsuit of course. Somehow, to my amazement she was able to write: To John and she drew a smiley face and then the numeral 4 and then E V E R. To John Forever. Wow!

By February 2021, she needed to be in memory care. A great blessing for me is the sandwich story. Rebekah never acknowledged she had dementia and she begged me not to put her “in one of those places.” So, I was very worried when she finally went to memory care. At the beginning, I could only speak to her through the window screen because of the Covid lockdown. I came to the window a couple of days after she entered the facility. I was really nervous. I was afraid she would say, Why am I here? Why did you do this? Instead, the first words out of her mouth looking at me through the window were: Why don’t you come in for a sandwich? She didn’t know where she was. Her illness had progressed to the point she didn’t know that she was in a memory care facility. And she never did ask me why she was there.

The San Francisco trips were always highlights of our time together. Like me, she found the city beautiful and inspiring. With her it had nothing to do with politics. It had everything to do with beauty, romance, and hope for the future. And she thought it was fun. She loved to ride the cable cars. She wouldn’t ride the streetcars, buses or subway – just the cable cars. San Francisco to me was impossibly difficult to drive in. I hated it. I wouldn’t drive there. But she loved to drive there before she became ill. She would ask me to take her to the steepest streets so she could go up and down them. I wasn’t crazy about doing that at all. On our last trip she even asked the Uber driver to go down one of the steepest streets in the city. She liked to have dinner at Macy’s at Union Square and Alioto’s at Fisherman’s wharf. She liked to order bread at Boudin Bakery. But visual beauty was very important. She liked to visit Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, Lombard street, Pacific Heights, Cliff House, Sea Cliff, Aquatic Park, Sutro Heights Park, Coit Tower, and of course Twin Peaks where we were married in 1983. We were there many times over the years. On earlier trips she dreamed that we could live someday in San Francisco. On several trips we went and looked at open houses on Sunday afternoons. We last visited San Francisco in 2018.

Music was very important to Rebekah. She liked classical but pop and standards were her favorite. Looking back, I’m sure the pop songs she liked affirmed her belief that love is real - right here in this world. When we first started dating, her favorite singer was Karen Carpenter. We listened over and over to songs like Top of World, For all we Know, and We Have Only Just Begun. She would often say, John listen to the words.

For years Rebekah would sing a funny, novelty song: I Have a Never Ending Love for You . I wondered, where does that come from? I never heard anyone perform that song. Then I realized it was a hit back in 1971 when she was in high school. But there was a special song that was part of our lives together nearly every year from 1982 through 2020. She would sing it to me. As she entered memory care in early 2021 she was less and less coherent. As the months went on she spoke less and less. But on December 3, 2021, almost a full year after entering memory care, I got this message from caregiver Linda Desno: Good evening Mr. John; Ms Becky is singing: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

She kept up with current pop artists. In her final years she especially liked Josh Groban and Celine Dion. I’m so glad we were able to see both of these artists in person – Celine in 2016 and Josh in 2019 and then three online Josh Groban concerts during 2020 . We both saw the movie Titanic together - it was a powerful bonding experience. Celine’s song has these words:

[Verse 1]

Every night in my dreams

I see you, I feel you

That is how I know you go on

Far across the distance

And spaces between us

You have come to show you go on

[Chorus]

Near, far, wherever you are

I believe that the heart does go on

Once more, you open the door

And you're here in my heart

And my heart will go on and on

[Verse 2]

Love can touch us one time

And last for a lifetime

And never let go 'til we're gone

She asked me not once but several times in 2020 when she was living with me and in deep dementia - can we go back, can we go back to San Francisco? I side stepped her requests because of Covid and because of her illness. I did not honor her request for one more visit to San Francisco in life. But I have decided to honor her request in death. I think she would approve the words of the old song, San Francisco - Open your Golden Gate:

It only takes a tiny corner of

This great big world to make the place we love;

My home upon the hill, I find I love you still,

I've been away, but now I'm back to tell you...

San Francisco, open your golden gate

You let no stranger wait outside your door

San Francisco, here is your wanderin' one

Saying I'll wander no more

Other places only make me love you best

Tell me you're the heart of all the golden west

San Francisco, welcome me home again

I'm coming home to go roaming no more .

These are the exact words Rebekah left us in a planning document she did in 2011:

“I have come to join you my mother and father, sisters, baby brother, uncles and aunts, and my grandparents.”

“Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery – that is WHY we all should live life to the fullest

Don’t let yesterday use up today

Forgive and forget and move on

We ALL must be the best person that we can be

Love one another and help one another!

Give to others (whether it is money, flowers, help or a SMILE)

Show kindness to one another no matter what color or race!

Let there be PEACE! And PEACE ON EARTH!!!

GOD BLESS US ALL!”