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. 

Today, June 14, is the anniversary of my wedding to Hugh Barry Beall from Rockmart, Georgia. We met on July 4 and married on Flag Day, June 14 at the First Methodist Church in Albany, GA.

Barry at 28 when we married. 

While I've been laid up with first one malady and then another the past month, I've used my time to go through old photos, slides, and albums. How young we were that summer day we met. We had no idea where life would take us but we only cared about one thing. We wanted to be together. Boy, did we have fun! He had the greatest sense of humor and could always make me laugh any time he wanted. When he sang to me and played his guitar, I could not believe that I, shy and self-conscious, was the one he had chosen. He was charming. He lit up a room when he entered and he had that quality right up until his death.

I was a brand new fourth grade teacher and he, recently discharged from the U.S. Army, worked as manager of the Luggage and Gift Store. I couldn't cook when we married but he never complained. When I ruined a meal, he said, “Let’s just have peanut butter sandwiches.”

He loved the mountains and so did I. He loved dogs and so did I. We both loved convertibles and each had new ones when we married. He taught me to ride motorcycles, and I taught him to ride horses.

Barry Beall

Looking back over the 45 years we shared, I realize what held us together through good and tough times was our commitment to our marriage and the fact that I didn't think I could live without him in my life. I never allowed the word divorce to enter our conversations, no matter how angry or upset we were with each other. I tried to support him in everything he did, and he was my biggest cheerleader.

At Halloween, Barry became Lonzo Carpe, the old man you see here. At parties no one recognized him. He stayed in character all evening. 

Our ambitions were not to make tons of money, but to enjoy our relationship, to take care of each other and to glean all of life’s greatest joy out of every day.  

When I make my gratitude list, I always find something about Barry to put on that list, and I don’t think I will ever run out of items.

Our first Christmas at our mountain house in 1995 with Kodi, our beloved Samoyd.