Publisher's Wife Passes

She was the love of my life for the past 53 years. Anita Rush Beeler, 78, passed away on Sunday morning, March 20, at Memorial Hospital Medical Center, surrounded by her loving family.

We met in 1967 at a Belmont Shore party. When I carried her roommate with a leg cast to the second floor of the party house, she was smitten by this fellow Pennsylvanian. Anita was from Conshohocken, outside Philadelphia, and I was from Waynesboro, a small town near Gettysburg and Camp David.

We married on Dec. 28, 1968 in Conshohocken but returned to Long Beach to raise three wonderful children: Jeff, Janet and Mindy. Prior to being a mother, Anita worked at Hughes Aircraft and TRW Space Systems. After the youngest child was in school fulltime, she worked at the J.D. French Center in Los Alamitos. Then she took a position at the Long Beach Police Department’s Record Division before switching to administrative tasks in the Homicide Bureau, retiring in 2013.

Concurrently she kept busy attending classes at Long Beach City College, being active with the Minnie Gant PTA and serving on the Long Beach Public Safety Advisory Commission. With impressive skills in knitting and crocheting, Anita custom-made hundreds of Christmas stockings, afghans and similar products for sale at Sugarplum craft shows or sharing with family and friends.

Anita is survived by her husband, Jay Beeler, son Jeffrey Beeler, daughters Janet Beeler and Mindy Nickerson, son-in-law Bryan Nickerson, grandchildren Lyla and Owen Nickerson, brother-in-law Thomas Beeler, sister-in-law Margaret Honodel and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

The Beeler family extends its sincere appreciation to the medical staff of Optum Care as well as the coronary care staff at Memorial Hospital Medical Center for their caring, professional services.

A celebration of Anita’s life is in the planning stages for May 1. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the charity of your choice or to the Citywatch Foundation (in support of investigative journalism), P.O. Box 15679, Long Beach, CA 90815-0679 or https://beachcomber.news/content/donations.

True love never dies.