Avid reader and reciter of poetry, accomplished stenographer and secretary, active and dedicated church worker, and devoted wife, mother, and homemaker Beulah Naomi Downs reposed in the Lord on Tuesday, 10 November 2015 (which was her 75th wedding anniversary).

Born and raised in Lehighton, PA, she was the second daughter of Charles and Beulah (Whitaker) Dressler. She graduated from Lehighton High School and Allentown Business College. She was an enthusiastic reader and an accomplished archer, activities she shared with the love of her life, Robert Stanton Downs. Together, they attended many dances during the depression years, and she had the privilege to meet many of the great band leaders of the era, especially Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw. She and Robert were married on 10 November 1940, and had three children, Robert Jr. (married to Martine Mulder), Gary Thomas (married to Cynthia Laine), and Bruce Charles, who died soon after birth.

Bee, as she was called by all her family and friends, lived a life filled with travels and adventures. From Pennsylvania, she moved with her family to Casper, Wyoming in 1951. She spent nine happy years there; then, beginning in 1960, she began an odyssey around the Western USA, living in Arizona, California, Texas, and finally, Seattle, Washington, where her husband, Robert, died in August, 1966. She went back to Pennsylvania for five years, then joined her son Robert in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She lived 38 very active years in Albuquerque before moving to Portland, Oregon in 2009, to be near Robert, Jr. and his family. She also traveled to Germany to visit Gary and his family (he was a U.S. Army Aviator), and to the Netherlands for the wedding of Robert, Jr. and Martine. She was always going somewhere, becoming quite knowledgeable about airline travel. She loved seeing new scenery and meeting new people.

Proud of her Pennsylvania «Dutch» heritage, she was active as a youth in the German Reformed Church. She became an Episcopalian when she married, holding many positions in that church, all the way from cook to Sunday School teacher to Choir member to Vestry member to Lector, reading the Old Testament at the Sunday Mass. Soon after moving to Albuquerque, she helped to found St. Chad’s Episcopal Church. One of her gifts, as one of the five founding members, was to provide a detailed history of the church and its activities, spanning the years from 1974 to 1999. She was well loved by all, being considered the official «Grandma» of the church. When she moved to Portland in 2009, she soon converted to the Orthodox Church in America, where she attended faithfully every week until soon before her repose.
Her faith was very important to her, and she inspired others by her dedication and enthusiasm. In Albuquerque, she was a member of NOEL, National Organization of Episcopalians for Life, attending many meetings and public pro-life rallies.

Bee loved poetry, often reciting beloved poems from memory. In her later years, she also spontaneously broke into song, usually singing songs from the 1930’s and hymns. Her favorites were Christmas carols. She was also a talented artist, drawing many cartoons and pictures for her grandchildren. Bee loved the English language (she also knew German and Pennsylvania Dutch). She was a real stickler for proper spelling and grammar, and would often exhort her children, grandchildren, and anyone else who would listen, to speak correctly!

Bee was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Beulah, her sisters Arlene, Pearl, and Edith, her husband Robert, her son Bruce, and many, many uncles, aunts, and cousins and dear friends (one of the hazards of living to be 100, plus!). She is survived by her sons Robert, Jr. and Gary, and their families, grandchildren Jennifer Downs Vincent (Ross), Jessica Downs, and Robert Downs III (Bethany), and great-grandchildren Jackson and Jillian Vincent, and John, Peter, and Magdalene Downs.

A Service of Christian Burial will be held at the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, 13515 SE Rusk Road, Milwaukie, OR 97269, beginning at 12:00 noon on Friday, 20 November 2015. Following the interment at Adams Cemetery in Molalla, OR, there will be a meal at the church.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to Oregon Right to Life, 4335 River Road, Salem, OR 97303 (www.ortl.org), or to St. Chad’s in Albuquerque or Church of the Annunciation. In celebration of her life, tell a joke to someone or make a pun. Bee would love it!!!