Beatrice B. Leigh

Leigh Beatrice B. Leigh, age 86, of Saint Paul, Minnesota and Springfield, Virginia, died on March 5 in Saint Paul after a two-month illness. Born Beatrice Bertha Beinart in Staten Island, New York in 1915. She was a graduate of Staten Island Hospital School of Nursing and Wagner College. She enjoyed a long nursing career in New York State, Florida, Washington State and Minnesota, which included many years as a charge nurse at Keyes Nursing Home in Excelsior and Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis. She married Wilbur T. Leigh, Jr. in 1940 in Alexandria, Virginia. The couple, who had two daughters, lived in Staten Island, Boston, Excelsior and Florida. After his death in 1974, she lived near her daughters in Tacoma, Washington, Springfield, Virginia and Saint Paul, Minnesota, living with them in recent years. Bea Leigh was a lifelong Lutheran and had for the past ten years been a member of Saint Paul Reformation in Saint Paul, where she rejoiced in the ministry. In the past few years she had been an active participant in the Senior Day Program at the MLK Center in Saint Paul, and had during her winters in Virgina, attended the Senior Program in Springfield. She was preceded in death by an older sister, Amelia Goraghty and is survived by twin sisters, Henrietta Demarest of Staten Island, and Louise Salva, of Issaquah, Washington; her daughters, Alicejean Leigh Dodson of Springfield, Virginia, and Barbara Leigh-Kaplan of Saint Paul; grandchildren, Reed Palo, Aric Olsen, Anne McGrath, Richard Dodson and Jacqueline Jacoby; and great-grandchildren, April Palo, Jennifer, Jessica and Katie Rose Olsen; as well as many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends in New York, Washington, Virginia and Minnesota. Memorial service Thursday, March 14 at 3:00 PM at Saint Paul Reformation Lutheran Church, 100 Oxford Street, Saint Paul (651-224-3371). Memorials preferred to Saint Paul Reformation Organ Fund.

Published on March 12, 2002