Beverly Jean Godfrey Chandler

Beverly Jean Godfrey Chandler, 85, of St. Joseph, Michigan, died Tuesday, February 26, 2013, at her home in St. Joseph. Services celebrating her life will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5, at the Napier Parkview Baptist Church in Benton Harbor with Dr. J. O. Hosler officiating. Burial will follow in Crystal Springs Cemetery. The family will receive friends and relatives beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the church. Memorials may be made to Napier Parkview Baptist Church, Child Evangelism Fellowship International, or Hospice at Home. Arrangements are entrusted to Starks & Menchinger Chapel. Those wishing to sign Beverly’s Memory Book online may do so at www.starks-menchinger.com. Beverly was born on January 11, 1928, in Benton Harbor to Ernest W. and Dorothy Mae Godfrey. She married her husband Jack Chandler on November 24, 1951. He survives. Beverly graduated from Benton Harbor High School in 1946, where she served as a Big Sister and served on the Jr. Prom Committee. She lived at the Eleanor Club in Benton Harbor and worked as a bookkeeper at Walgreen’s also in Benton Harbor, where she met her husband Jack when he made deliveries to the store. While her husband prepared to serve in the Korean War, she worked for the telephone company in California. After returning to Benton Harbor, she worked for the Whirlpool Corporation, where she was a bookkeeper keeping track of parts required on the assembly line. She retired from Whirlpool to raise a family in 1956. As a senior citizen, she re-entered the workforce as an entrepreneur, delivering the Herald Palladium on foot. Bev was a member of the Napier Parkview Baptist Church where she worked in Pioneer Girls, kept the church books, served in the Cradle Roll, and sang in the church choir. She taught Good News Clubs in her home, teaching the Bible to the neighborhood children. She wore out her first dining room table in Bible study and prayer. Bev had lifelong loves of God, children, reading, books, poetry, music, flowers, nature and family. She kept the books of family history in her mind with the same precision she kept financial or manufacturing records. She transmitted these loves to her children. She faced the struggles of cancer with the same courage that she faced the struggles of life, more considerate of others than herself to the very end, confident of meeting her savior face to face, and eager to see her son Philip. Bev was preceded in death by her son, Philip, father Ernest, and mother Dorothy. She is survived by her husband Jack, sons Gregg of St. Joseph, and John (Lila) of St. Joseph, grandson Joel and granddaughter Danielle also of St. Joseph, sister Katherine Eggermont of South Bend IN, brothers Ken (Esther) Godfrey of Benton Harbor, and Don (Bonnie) Godfrey of Stevensville, along with many nieces and nephews, and their children and grandchildren. She leaves a Bev-shaped hole in all their hearts.