Elizabeth Novath Beller

Elizabeth Novath Beller was born on December 4, 1916 in Wheeling, West Virginia to Joseph and Sofia Novath, who had emigrated from Hungary in 1910. Her father worked as a coal miner for some years. She had two older brothers and two younger sisters.

Soon the family moved to Plant City, Florida, near Tampa, where Joseph took up strawberry farming. All the kids pitched in picking strawberries under the sun all day. Needless to say, she was not all that fond of strawberries.

She attended and graduated from high school where she was the class artist. She always enjoyed the laugh she got whenever she mentioned her school’s colorful name: Turkey creek High School.

After graduation she took on odd jobs and moved to Tampa where she became a waitress. One day she met a tall young man named Charles Beller Sr. who had been in the Army Corp of Engineers since 1939.

Soon they married and planned on a family, but world events, larger than anyone’s plans, intervened at a place called Pearl Harbor.

Soon after, her husband went to war in the south pacific. Elizabeth felt an obligation to help her husband as well as her country so in 1942 she joined the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps known as the WAACs where she served for almost a year.

After many years of war, she felt Charles had done more than his share and wrote the Army requesting a furlough for her husband, but got no response. Finally she wrote to the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

A month or so later he was home on furlough. Then a few months later (nine to be exact) she had her first son, Charles Beller Jr. After the war they were stationed in the San Francisco bay area where she had her second son, Henry.

Then in 1948, the Army reassigned Sgt. Beller to southern California where he taught ROTC at Hoover High School in Glendale. Elizabeth would stay here for the rest of her life.

Then in 1950, Charles was called on to serve in the combat engineers in Korea and she was alone again. Fortunately he returned but life isn’t perfect and they soon parted ways. Now she was a mother with two young sons to raise, a difficult job for a single woman in the 1950’s. But she not only managed to persevere, but worked hard to give her sons good educations so that they could grow to be successful as well.

In the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s she applied her artistic talents into crafting beautiful hand painted ceramic dolls with noble faces and elegant flowing gowns. She also took piano and organ lessons and could sight read play songs she liked. She helped and encouraged her son Henry to play too, which he does to this day.

In her later years, though she lived alone, she had many friends In the neighborhood who enjoyed her company including Clarence and Emily Tice and also Wanda Slaven, a fellow artist.

Finally, she had to move into an assisted living home with Emil and Sandra Mihet providing devoted care extending her life even further. On a recent Saturday, she went out to lunch with her two sons and daughter in law and afterward mentioned what a good time she had.

Two days later, on June 30, 2015, Elizabeth Novath Beller passed away.

Her family and friends all feel so fortunate to have known and loved this special woman for all those years that God granted her ---and all of us.