Helen Beardsley, 70, "Yours, Mine & Ours" Mom

[LandonEx]

Mother of 20 whose story was made a movie dies at 70

HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) -- Helen Eileen Beardsley, a mother of 20
whose story was made into a 1960s movie starring Lucille Ball, has
died. She was 70.

Beardsley wrote a book about her brood called "Who Gets the
Drumsticks?'' It was later made into the movie "Yours, Mine and Ours,''
which also starred Henry Fonda, Van Johnson and Tim Matheson.

"The movie was very Hollywood. Our family was a normal Navy family,''
daughter Jean Murphy said. "My mother wrote the original script, but it
was too boring, so Lucille Ball wrote a funny script.''

Beardsley died Wednesday. For the past decade, she had battled
Parkinson's disease.

Born Helen Eileen Brandmeir in Seattle, she married Lt. Richard North in
1949 and the couple had eight children. North died in 1960.

She married Navy Chief Warrant Officer Francis Beardsley, a widower with
10 children, in 1961. In 1963, her husband adopted her eight children,
the largest adoption to date in California.

The Beardsleys also had two children of their own.

Because of the size of their household, the Navy listed the Beardsleys
as a restaurant, allowing them to buy food at wholesale prices at the
Fort Ord Army Base commissary. The family bought 50 loaves of bread at a
time.

Beardsley was named Mother of the Year by the National Campfire Girls in
1963 and was a member of the state's Advisory Commission on the Status
of Women.

In 1973, she took a job at Carmel Community Hospital and later worked as
a cardiovascular technologist at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno.

"My mother was very much the lady. She was very traditional, with a
Catholic upbringing,'' Murphy said. "She was very much of a homemaker,
but also very much of a pioneer for women.''

She is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. A memorial Mass is scheduled for Monday in Santa
Rosa.

AP-NY / 04-29-00 / 15:33 PDT

=L=

[JJMMJJ]

>She is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two
>great-grandchildren.

20 children?? Shouldn't that be 10?

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <20000429173157...@ng-bg1.aol.com>, JJMMJJ
<jjm...@aol.comebyteme> wrote:

The obit says Beardsley legally adopted her kids. As Helen was his
wife, that ought to make hers his and his hers. (The movie has it that
they each adopted the other's children, but I take it that's nonsense.)

[Ann Linderman]

jjmmjj wrote:

>>She is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two
>>great-grandchildren.
>
>20 children?? Shouldn't that be 10?

Nope, 20 is right--10 from her first marriage, 8 from Frank's first marriage
(each of them later adopted the other's kids, which made these 8 legally hers)
and 2 they had after their marriage.

Ann Linderman (please reply to Annlindgk @aol.com)

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <20000429224742...@ng-ca1.aol.com>, Ann
Linderman <manil...@aol.comnoreply> wrote:

What suddenly struck me about the (Catholic) Beardsleys and their
pattern of procreation is that it's perfectly illustrative of the
post-WW2 American Catholic Church. Between them, the senior
generation's Frank and Helen had twenty children. All of those twenty
boomer children, taken together, have had only 44, which is just above
replacement level.

BTW, I'm not sure that Helen adopted Frank's children. The movie says
she does, but the AP obit doesn't mention it. It does say that Frank
adopted her eight, and states it's a record number ... but it doesn't
say that Helen adopted his ten, which would have broken that record
instantly.

[Matthew Hubbard]

Brad Ferguson wrote:
>
> What suddenly struck me about the (Catholic) Beardsleys and their
> pattern of procreation is that it's perfectly illustrative of the
> post-WW2 American Catholic Church. Between them, the senior
> generation's Frank and Helen had twenty children. All of those twenty
> boomer children, taken together, have had only 44, which is just above
> replacement level.

A slightly different illustration of a similar point. I have a friend
of boomer age whose mom is from a huge family, twelve or fourteen or
something like that. (Catholic from Louisiana.) All of her uncles got
married and sired large broods, at least five, while all her aunts (and
her mom) got married and had at most two kids. My friend is an only
child.

Sounds like the boys and the girls learned different life lessons in
the same house.

MattH

[Ann Linderman]

I misspoke in my earlier post when I said:

>jjmmjj wrote:
>
>>>She is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two
>>>great-grandchildren.
>>
>>20 children?? Shouldn't that be 10?
>
>Nope, 20 is right--10 from her first marriage, 8 from Frank's first marriage
>(each of them later adopted the other's kids, which made these 8 legally
>hers)
>and 2 they had after their marriage.
>

Actually, she had 8, he had 10, and together they had 2. (At least I managed to
get the opportunity to proclaim myself wrong....<g>)

Also, since (according to her book "Who Gets the Drumstick?") Helen was 32 when
her first husband was killed in 1960, she had to have been approximately 72
when she died last Wednesday,

[M.M. Bell]

I read her book a long time ago. My recollection is that the book said he
adopted her children and she adopted his. Her children's surname, North, was
changed to his surname. Her first husband was a Navy flyer and he was killed
in a plane crash while on a training mission.

M.M. Bell
mmbe...@xxathena.louisville.edu

In article <290420002356001138%thir...@frXOXed.net>, Brad Ferguson

<thir...@frXOXed.net> wrote:
>In article <20000429173157...@ng-bg1.aol.com>, JJMMJJ

><jjm...@aol.comebyteme> wrote:
>
>> >She is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two
>> >great-grandchildren.
>>
>> 20 children?? Shouldn't that be 10?
>
>

[Rags01]

M.M.Bell posted:

>>Her children's surname, North, was
changed to his surname. Her first husband was a Navy flyer and he was killed
in a plane crash while on a training mission. <<<

I thought the North children changed their last names too. But the obits,
listed some "North's" in the tally of children, so I don't know if the original
information was incorrect or if they changed their surnames back in adulthood.

Rags

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <20000503191952...@ng-fb1.aol.com>, Rags01
<rag...@aol.comnospam> wrote:

Back in the old neighborhood, the younger children changed their names
when their (widowed) mothers remarried, and the older children didn't.
"Older" meant high-school age.

Frank Beardsley adopted all eight of Helen's children, all of whom were
minors (under 21, that is) at the time. I don't think that means they
had to change their names, though.

[M.M. Bell]

Whether they had to make the change or not, I don't know. I believe this was
circa 1963 and perhaps that was the usual practice then. According to Mrs.
Beardsley's book, they did change their names from North to Beardsley. She
said she consulted her first husband's parents before moving forward with the
adoption proceedings and that was one of the issues to consider. When I saw
the obituary and how they were listed, several using the name North, I thought
it probably meant at least some of the children have chosen to return to the
North name.

M.M. Bell
mmbe...@xxathena.louisville.edu

[musicg...@gmail.com]

Five of the 8 all changed their names back to North.

[News]

<musicg...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:3c0cb55d-0986-41b2...@googlegroups.com...

> Five of the 8 all changed their names back to North.

This is an old, old, old obit. She died in April 2000.
Why are you posting it again now?