“We love Betty Beeby”
By - Tom Vranich, Editor (July 02, 2009)
The Blue Pelican banquet room south of Eastport was filled to capacity for last Thursday evening’s “We Love Betty Beeby” Dinner, put on by friends to celebrate her 2008 Historical Society of Michigan “Distinguished Volunteer Service Award.”
Area historians Glenn Ruggles and Frank Wilhelme, who nominated Beeby for the award, came up with the special tribute event, enlisting friends to help organize it to recognize the Eastport icon for her many contributions of time, talent and support of history, including a 50 foot mural of the Mackinac Bridge she created years ago that is now on permanent display at Fort Michilimackinac.
In their nomination statement to the Society, Ruggles and Wilhelme describe the woman who grew up as Betty Pearl as an “artist, historian and steward,” who is also “an author, editor, teacher, custodian/archivist, preservationist and benefactor.”
Born and raised in Detroit, spending her summers in Eastport at the family cottage on Torch Lake, Beeby graduated from Cass Technical High School and earned a Booth Scholarship to study art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Following graduation, she worked for Time/Life Magazine in New York, where she met her future husband, Jim Beeby. The couple raised four children while Betty pursued her artistic career as an illustrator and Jim’s as a pharmacist.
Upon his retirement in 1974, the couple moved to Eastport. She continued her creative work by helping Grace Hooper publish her regional classic, Whistle Up the Bay, as well as Hooper’s comprehensive Pioneer Notes, with Beeby’s illustrations gracing the cover and pages of each publication.
“In 1999, Betty headed an effort to preserve a collection of over one thousand glass plate negatives produced by a 19th century Mancelona photographer, Emil Johnson,” wrote former Crooked Tree Arts Council Director Dale Hull in his press release for the dinner event. “Beeby’s hard work provides a lasting legacy to much of Michigan’s past.”
In 2000, Beeby published her best selling book, Breathe Escaping Envelopes that evolved from her discovery of a collection of family letters, known as the “Peterboro Letters,” in a barn on the Pearl family’s property in Eastport. She established a $1,000 Pearl Awards Scholarship from proceeds of the book to help deserving high school art students, handing out ten scholarships by 2008.
More recently, she published two children’s books, An Octopus called Mrs. Squid and Great Granny’s Sturdy Stable Picnic Tables. She has also been a leader in helping preserve the Wilkinson Homestead in Eastport, a residence that stood vacant for over 40 years.
But Thursday was a night to celebrate Betty’s life and state award, with friends crowding the Blue Pelican to join in the fun. “Why is this woman having a dinner party?” asked Ruggles, who served as MC for the event.
Photo Caption: Betty shares a laugh with her daughter Josie’s childhood friend, Rena Levine, who still summers in the area. Photo by Tom Vranich
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