Funeral Service
Rite of Commital
Obituary of Joan Bernadette Beausoleil (nee Wright)
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Joan Beausoleil, aged 95. After a short illness, Joan passed away peacefully in La Jolla, California on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, surrounded by many of her children.
Joan was born in Bootle, Liverpool, England on July 25,1926, the second of eight children. The Wright family didn’t have much but they were rich in love and laughter. The six sisters were particularly close, with them all sharing one bedroom when growing up.
Joan wanted a large family of her own and was a wonderful mother to her seven children. With limited time and resources at hand, Joan called on higher powers, in this case, poor St Jude, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, to get her through the trials and tribulations of years of sleepless nights while nursing babies, dealing with broken bones or the inevitable list of childhood illnesses.
Joan went to school in Bootle but left at age 14 to help her mother raise the younger children. With the outbreak of WWII, the Germans began bombing the docks near Bootle. On one occasion, while on an errand for her mother, she was machine-gunned by a German plane, bullets hitting the wall behind her as she frantically ran home.
As bombing increased, children were evacuated to the countryside, including Joan and her siblings. Joan remained in the countryside until 1943, when she was old enough to volunteer for national service.
Joan was given the choice of working in a munitions factory, wearing overalls, or joining the WRENS, the Women’s Royal Navy Service. After seeing the stylish uniforms of the WRENS, she chose the Navy. This love of fashion became her hallmark with her sisters all wanting to know what Joan was wearing. In later years she loved to wear leopard print scarves and tops, always accessorised with the latest belts, bracelets, and earrings.
Initially posted to a Scottish castle, Joan felt that washing castle steps was beneath her and got herself transferred to Douglas, a seaside town in the Isle of Man, where she assisted in the management of internment camps for German refugees and POWs.
She loved her time there, but not the disagreeable sergeant who made the WRENS do morning calisthenics in tops and shorts, in full view of thousands of German prisoners, staring silently from behind barbed wire.
In 1945, with the war over, Joan retired from the WRENS. With Britain still under rations and luxury items hard to come by, Joan’s first job was in a nylon stocking factory, but she soon quit when she heard there were no free samples. She then took up a post as head clerk for Vernon’s Pools, in Liverpool, managing a huge department of women.
Joan always had a wonderful singing voice and sang well into her 90’s, at times being professionally recorded and singing at functions. After the war, and usually late at night after being at the pub, she was known to spontaneously break into song under the bedroom window of her sisters, waking them and everybody in the neighbourhood. Knowing it was Joan, many would join in for a midnight sing-along.
Joan’s next job was to be a defining point in her life. Wanting to be closer to fashion, Joan started working at Lewis’ Department store at the chemist counter, near the entrance. One day a young man in an American uniform approached looking for cough drops. His name was Normand Beausoleil. Joan had always had many suitors, but none as persistent as Normand. Spurning his first three advances, she finally agreed to go out with him.
After a whirlwind romance, Joan’s parents dispatched their Catholic priest to travel to America to check out the brash, young American’s family and vouch for his character. Father Fitz came back with a thumbs up and Joan and Normand were married in Liverpool in October 1952. A few months later, along with hundreds of other war brides, she sailed into New York harbour on Christmas Eve, 1952 to begin her new life.
For the next 23 years Joan and Normand toured the world with Joan as the military wife of a US Air Force serviceman with top secret status. Due to the specialist nature of his work, Normand was posted to unique locations. With a growing family in tow, Joan and Normand enjoyed postings in England, Scotland, Spain, and Berlin along with many Stateside locations. Some of these tours had unexpected surprises. In the early 60’s, while posted to Palma, Majorca, Spain there are many photos of Joan and Normand sitting on a yacht or outdoor café, next to Hollywood movie stars, looking tanned and glamorous.
But there were also challenges during those years. Joan got through these with an insurmountable belief in God and endless sets of worn-down rosary beads. Near the end of one tour when Normand was called back to the US unexpectedly due to a death in the family, Joan followed on her own, shepherding six children under 8 and pregnant with the seventh. Every child was immaculately dressed from clothes Joan had made.
Joan’s calling was to be an amazing mother. She was unflappable, hard-working, and resourceful. While Normand was stationed in Alaska for a year of remote duty, the family was on a small base in the middle of Wisconsin’s dairy country. Joan’s days were filled with taking care of seven children, canning summer vegetables, surviving a car fire while she was still in it, and trudging through deep winter snows to get to the small radar station for her 5-minute weekly phone call to Normand.
When Joan heard the next tour would be in Berlin, Germany, she was in tears and refused to go. Little did she know when landing in Berlin in 1967 that it would be the beginning of five wonderful years. Joan ended up loving Berlin and the German people she met. She was a whirlwind of daily activity; quickly getting the kids to school then out the door to shop at the German markets or meet Normand for antique buying sprees.
Because of the size of the family, the military requisitioned a 21-room house for them to live in. The house was in a leafy neighbourhood consisting of families of diplomats and top military brass. This level of accommodation was far above the lowly station of a mere Air Force Technical Sergeant, but Joan fitted in right away. She ran the house with military efficiency, with enough time for her and Normand to enjoy the vibrant nightlife of West Berlin.
While in Berlin, annual vacations consisted of making the two-day drive to the UK. Normand would dutifully load the gasping 1963 Chevy Greenbriar full of kids and German treats and drive it at a snail’s pace through occupied East Germany.
For the next 30 days, Joan would happily move her family from one Bootle house to another, drinking endless cups of tea with her sisters while the kids grew bored. Then it was off to the Welsh coast with eight vehicles stuffed with aunts, uncles, kids, and camping gear, where they would decamp for 2 weeks in rain-soaked tents, waiting for a break in the weather. For Joan, it didn’t matter. Her world was complete.
After retirement from the Air Force, Normand and Joan started an antique importing business and settled in Texas spending the first 30 years in Houston and the last 13 in Liberty.
Joan will be remembered for her unerring kindness and warmth. In 95 years, she never lost a friend and made many new friends along the way. She was a bright star throughout her life, touching everyone who got to know her. Her flame may be extinguished, but the light of her memory shines on in those who loved her.
Joan is survived by her children; Bernard and children Nathan and Lauren and their mother Debbie; Briand (Fiona) children Louis and Callum; Mark (Liz) children Nick, Liam, and Olivia; Sue Kuempel (Russell) children Ashley Perry (Tyler) and Matt; Luke (Ginna) children Brent Hodges (Ashley); Pauline (Hossein Moradi) children Hanna and Leah; Daughter-in-law Mandy Beausoleil and children Bryn (William Loxton), Gabi, and Will; as well as two of her siblings; George and Kath.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 63 years, Normand who passed away in January 2016 and her third son, Gerald who passed away in January 2021.
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, August 20, 2021 at St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, 6800 Buffalo Speedway in Houston, Texas. Burial will follow at 1:00 p.m. at Houston National Cemetery, 10410 Veterans Memorial Drive in Houston, Texas. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.