Beverly Joyce Blankenship, 87

Beverly Joyce Blankenship, 87, a sweet and gentle spirit, “joined Our Lord” on May 9, 2011. 

Beverly had been residing at The Springs Assisted Living facility in Whitefish, having battled with dementia for the past few years. 

Beverly was the first of four children, born to Glenn and Ruth (Kittleson) Getter in Cut Bank on Oct. 30, 1923. She was followed by her loving brothers, Ralph E. Getter, Tom I. Getter, and Bruce E. Getter. 

After graduating from high school in Cut Bank in 1941, she spent one year at Northern Montana College. She remarked that it was not much fun at college because there were no boys; they were all off to war.

On Aug. 8, 1945, Beverly married Ray Blankenship of Whitefish. She and Ray continued to live in Cut Bank for the next 20 years, with the exception of one Korean War year in Tacoma, Wash., near her favorite aunt and uncle, Tom and Millie Martin. In Glacier County they built their business and family, which quickly expanded to four children, John, Terry, Tom and Ellen. Beverly was a wonderful mother, active in the Saddle Club, Eastern Star, PEO, Presbyterian Church and Girl Scouts. 

In her younger years she had worked at various jobs, including Glacier Production, Glenn Getter Trucking and the Great Northern Railway, and later, for the Union Oil Company.

Several years after her divorce from Ray in 1963, she remarried and moved to Helena. Combining two families proved too difficult and she was soon on her own again, by this time in “the big city.”  A very gregarious and easygoing woman, she found work with Morrison-Maierle Architects and Engineers, the American Lung Association and the American Federal Savings Bank, from which she eventually retired.

In her later years her youngest daughter, Ellen and husband Frank, provided her with her only two grandchildren, from whom she got much satisfaction.

She was deeply involved and committed to her church, the First Presbyterian Church of Helena, and her Church Circle Group. She had a longtime involvement and commitment to the Sapphira Daughters of the Nile, the Josephine Hepner No. 82 Order of the Eastern Star, and PEO, where she developed and nurtured many devoted friendships. Her friendships were not for the moment but were for life.

Beverly was always ready to go. Her love of travel, whether it be in her car dashing off to Seattle, San Francisco, Spokane, Butte, Cut Bank or Whitefish, or on a bus tour with her Nile Patrol, or even flying off to Europe kept her looking forward to the next adventure. “It seemed God or Bruce was always looking after her. With any mishap or lost direction there was always a guardian angel to rescue her and send her safely on her way.”

Beverly loved to work in the yard, and weeds beware! She would grab an errant weed and yank it out without skipping a beat. Cooking and baking, however, were her forte, not as an end in themselves, but as an act of sharing with her friends and family. There was rarely a gathering for which she didn’t offer her frosted ginger cream cookies (Fie on he or she who took the last one!) her apple, huckleberry, cherry or pumpkin pies, her famous fried chicken or one of her special casseroles. A command performance was not unusual. 

Beverly is survived by her brother, Bruce E. Getter, of Whitefish; son, John, of Berkeley, Calif.; son, Tom, of Helena; daughter, Ellen, and Frank Wesolovski, of West Glacier; grandchildren, Heather and Alex Wesolovski; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Glenn and Ruth Getter; her daughter, Terry; and brothers, Ralph and Tom.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m., June 18, at the First Presbyterian Church in Helena.

Another memorial service will take place at 4 p.m., Aug. 1, at 750 Birch Point Drive in Whitefish, preceding the burial of her ashes in the Getter family plot at Crown Hill Cemetery.

Memorials may be sent to the Shiners Hospital in Spokane.

The family sincerely thanks The Springs Assisted Living of Whitefish and Hospice for their wonderful loving care and consideration to Beverly and the family. She was always treated with dignity and respect.