My Beall and Alexander Family

From Left: Barry Beall, a young boy, his mother Helen Alexander Beall, her father Roy Alexander, his son Harold Alexander holding his son Rodney Alexander. Front row: Inez, Harold's wife and Myrtice Walker Alexander, wife of Roy.

Barry Beall and Glenda Beall on back row
Paige Beall and her grandmother, Helen Alexander Beall

The photo was taken at the Alexander Reunion in Roopville, GA where Alexanders met each year at the home of Jimmie Lou Alexander Huff on a farm that had been in the Alexander family for decades. Barry's mother, Helen, was such a lovely lady. She was a supermom before the word was invented. She went to college in LaGrange, Georgia. She opened, with a friend, Helen Anne Dress Shop in Rockmart, GA, and worked there everyday while rearing two sons. She was active in her community and in her church. Helen loved her yard, she did her own maintenance right up into her eighties. She learned to water ski in her fifties and I, at 24 was so impressed by this woman who would become my mother-in-law. She adored her sons and her grandchildren and I think she loved me. I never went to see her that she didn't have something for me from her store. I was blessed with the best in Helen Beall.

Barry's father Hugh Beall was orphaned as a child and had only one sister, Mildred. They were separated and brought up by relatives. Barry was predeceased by his only brother, Richard, who was killed in a car accident. Richard is the father of Jon and Paige in the pictures on this page.

Aunt Jimmie Lou Alexander Huff and Barry Beall

 I was amazed when I first met Aunt Jimmie Lou Huff. I could hardly believe she was seventy-two years old at the time as she scampered back and forth from the porch outside to the kitchen, dressed in white shorts and spanking clean Keds. I commented to my husband, “Does she ever just walk?”

            He laughed. “Aunt Jimmie Lou never slows down.  She has more energy than anybody I know.”

            The photo of Barry with Aunt Jimmie Lou was taken the last time we saw her. She died at the age of 102.

2008, soon after Barry was diagnosed with Lymphoma, Jon Beall and his family came to visit.  Back row: Tammy and Jon Beall   Second Row: Kathlyn and Bryant Beall surround Barry in the chair on our deck.

Although I was intimidated by my mother-in-law, she was a kind and loving person who never intentionally made me feel inadequate. As a young, new wife, I had no confidence in myself and felt she must think I was not going to make Barry a good wife. But she and Hugh made me feel at  home when we went to visit. In later years she visited our home for holidays, and I had learned to cook by then. She seemed happy with me as a daughter-in-law. I miss her and my Beall family. I don't see them as much as I did but think of them often and have great memories of our times together.