Beverly Mae Larson

Beverly Mae Morrell Larson died peacefully on November 12, 2023. She was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, on August 30, 1936, and grew up in Issaquah, Washington.

Bev attended Issaquah High School, where she served as president of the girls club. During her high school years, Bev was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an illness she faced uncomplainingly throughout her life, even as its effects led to a series of other ailments.

After high school, Bev held secretarial positions at Builders Hardware in Silverton, Oregon, and Remington Rand in Salem, Oregon. At age 20, Bev and three friends embarked on a cross-country driving trip in a 1950 Ford convertible. They settled in Santa Barbara, California, where Bev worked at General Electric and met Francis Larson on a blind date. The two were married in 1959 after several months of long-distance courtship, and Bev moved to Phoenix where she again worked for General Electric. In 1981, Bev and Frank moved to New Mexico and built an adobe home with a view of the Sandia Mountains in Placitas, New Mexico, where they lived together for forty years. They later owned a second home in Orange, Virginia, where they were fully involved in the lives of their Virginia grandchildren for half of each year.

Above all, Bev was a creative. When her children were young, she made clothes for them and herself and took up pottery. In the 1970s, she owned Macrame and Mud and later Panorama Pottery, making pot hangers that used her handmade clay beads and slab-built wall hangings that held dried flower arrangements. She sold her work and actively participated in arts and craft shows, co-ops, and galleries in Arizona and New Mexico. Later, when pottery became too physically demanding, she took up fused glass, a hobby she continued until late in life.

Bev also had a volunteer spirit, serving at the district level for the Girl Scouts in Phoenix. In later years, she was a baby cuddler at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque and often mentioned that experience as a highlight. She enjoyed travel and visited Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the Panama Canal, and Alaska.

Beverly Larson was preceded in death by her parents, Perry L. Morrell and Vera Anna Frieda Wolff Morrell, and her sister, Ione Lydia Morrell Stubblefield (Wayne). She is survived by her loving husband of 64 years, Francis Willard Larson of Placitas, New Mexico, and daughters, Linda Ann Larson Hogan (Marc) of Woodberry Forest, Virginia, and Emily Larson Heath (Greg) of Mancos, Colorado. Her grandchildren are Miranda Larson Hogan (Michael Silvay) of Staunton, Virginia; Anna Grey Larson Hogan (Andrew Davis) of Charlottesville, Virginia; Brendan Russell Heath of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Cordelia Larson Hogan of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Emmarose Heath (Solomon Apodaca) of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests supporting the baby cuddling program by making a gift to the Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation; write "Child Life Program" in the comments.