Beverly Jane Sudman

Beverly (Bev) Jane Sudman (Youmans)

October 20, 1930 - March 10, 2022

Bev passed away peacefully at age 91 in Seal Beach, California. She was born in Owosso, Michigan. She lived in Santa Barbara from 1972 until 2011, moving to Seal Beach where she spent more than 10 happy years. She and her husband, Jim, were married 51 ½ years. She was blessed with 4 children, 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren. A Celebration of Life is on Sunday, March 20 at 3pm at Parkcrest Christian Church, Long Beach. Burial is on Tuesday, March 22 at noon at Goleta Cemetery, Santa Barbara. She was deeply loved and will be missed. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the MS Society at https://mssociety.donordrive.com/campaign/Beverly-Sudman-Memorial-MS-Fund .

Over the years, Bev enjoyed playing and teaching the games of Pinochle and cribbage. She formed a Pinochle club at the MS Society with her oldest son Bill. She grew roses, orchids and African violets. She loved Hummingbirds. She enjoyed sewing, making clothes for Carol & Ginnie along with making quilts for most of her grandchildren. In Santa Barbara she was active in Posvenidos, played in a Kitchen Band, and was church secretary, among many other volunteer activities.  One of her favorite things to do was to bring flowers to shut-ins. She had a big heart.

My Story by Beverly Sudman

Written March 20, 1984

I was a “depression” baby, born into a loving Christian home in Owosso, Michigan with an older brother, Dan, and sister, Pat. My dad was a carpenter and I remember what fun it was when he was planing wood. I would pick up the shavings and put them in my hair and have instant curls. My mother was a school teacher. She taught after completing her education, but did not teach again until I was in high school.

I have very pleasant memories of my childhood - such as playing with my best girlfriend, Joanie, who I knew before I started school and all through high school. We used to play paper dolls, dress-up and church. We would pretend to take communion and have fun being the preacher, waving our arms about. My folks had a cabin at a lake in northern Michigan and we had many good times there together. My dad was an avid fisherman and the rest of us also enjoyed fishing, swimming and row boating.

I was baptized into Christ one Easter Sunday morning when I was 10 years old with several of my best girlfriends. That was a very special occasion for me. I even remember wearing a white dress with little red flowers on it. I don’t remember robes for children, but I do remember that dress.

As I became a teenager, I became active in our young people’s group. On Sunday nights after our youth meeting and church service, we always got together at someone’s home. Very often, it was my parent’s house. I don’t remember for sure, but we must have eaten a lot of popcorn. I do remember that there was a radio program that we always listened to called “Inner Sanctum”, which started out with a very squeaky door sound. Then a voice would say, “Turn out the lights” and we would. My parents put up with us - our noise, lights out and all - and it was nice to know that we could always go there. Our young people’s group was quite active and we were well-acquainted. I was a member of Job's Daughters and in my Junior year in high school, we were planning our big Installation Dance. This was a formal affair and always quite exciting, at least to the girls. The girls always were the ones to invite the boy to be their date for the dance. Well, I wanted to invite this tall, dark fellow to go with me. He was in our church youth group too. I remember quite clearly that we were coming home on a bus trip with a big gang from the church. Finally, I got up the nerve to ask him to go to the Installation Dance with me on May 19. He accepted and that was the beginning of Jim’s and my romance.

I graduated from high school a year later in June 1948, was 18 in October and we were married December 26. When we first started talking about getting married, it was to be during Jim’s spring break. He was in college at the time and he hitch-hiked home every weekend so we could spend more time together. Easter vacation seemed like such a long time to wait so we were married during Christmas vacation. We settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan where Jim was working on his engineering degree. I got my PHT degree - Putting Hubby Through. I did secretarial work at the University of Michigan and later at the County Health Department while Jim was in school for 2 ½ more years.

He received his degree, got a job and nine months later we had our first child, Bill. We moved to Flint, Michigan where Jim worked for AC Spark Plug, division of GM, and two years after Bill was born, Carol was born. Three years later we had Mark. By then, we owned our first home, with house payments of $76 a month, which was hard on our budget at that time. We were a happy family and I was a busy mother. Then, surprise - the company moved us to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Two months after moving there we had our daughter, Ginnie, born 18 months after Mark. Our family would not have been complete without her.

It seems that I spent many years then just taking care of kids. Eventually I was a den mother two times and Girl Scout leader two times. We all became quite active in the Christian church in Milwaukee at that time. I started teaching Sunday School and was busy in the ladies group and other activities. As time went on, we built a beautiful home in the suburbs and eventually Bill and Carol were through high school. Bill was working and Carol was starting college. Life seemed perfect for our family. Then guess what - the company decided to move us to California.

This was a very hard time for our family, one the most trying times we’ve had to go through. Bill and Carol had their own lives, plans and friends in the Wisconsin area. They chose to stay there and not move to California with us. We found out later that many other GM families went through similar experiences. Before this time, I had not been further west than the other side of the state of Wisconsin, but in the fall of 1972, the four of us found ourselves settling in Santa Barbara. Mark became a sophomore at DP and Ginnie was in the eighth grade at Goleta Valley Junior High. I know this was a very difficult time for them. Friends mean so much to teenagers. Many of their new friends made here in Santa Barbara came from Milwaukee and had transferred out when we did, even though they did not know each other before the move.

Our family was no longer complete; there was a big vacuum in my life at that time so I decided to go to City College to help fill the void. I discovered that it was fun being a college student. I received an AA degree and was in the Medical Assisting Program. I ended up with a part time job working for a neurologist as a medical transcriber. This period of working was very enjoyable to me. About this time, I took some women’s exercise classes in adult ed. I was quite proud of myself, because I was finally able to do some sit-ups, which I wasn’t able to do before. Also, Mark & Lisa were getting married in April and the house and yard needed extra polishing. My right elbow started hurting and the pain spread to my hand. In December 1978 the doctor I was working for retired and I was not feeling well, so I retired too. The pain became much worse and after many tests, it was decided I had thoracic outlet syndrome. I had surgery for this in May 1979. The surgery helped but there was a long recovery period. I don’t think I was pain free for over two years. Jim gave me a lot of emotional support at this time as well as many other times in our marriage. One verse of scripture that helped me was from Philippians 4:11. “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”

Those problems are behind me now and I feel great. This is a good time of my life. I’m free to pursue hobbies, do volunteer work and play but sometimes I’m almost too busy to take the “time to smell the roses.” I would like to become more committed as a Christian; we should never stop growing. I also am trying to schedule time for personal Bible Study.

There are many more things I could have told you about. We lived one year in Boston - my father and sister both died of cancer. I have not told you much about our children. Bill and Carol live in Milwaukee, Mark in Zaire Africa. At least Ginnie lives here in Santa Barbara and not thousands of miles away. I have not told you about our five beautiful grandchildren, Jason, Judy, Craig, Daniel and Rebekah, but I always have pictures handy.

I will close with my favorite verse, Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”

PS from her kids:

Mom ended up with four more beautiful grandchildren for a total of nine: Stephanie, Emily, Derek and Kevin. She also has 17 great grandchildren and 5 great-great grandchildren. She also dearly loved her kid’s spouses, Jim, Lisa and Paul. Sadly her oldest son, Bill, passed away in July 2012 after  a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis.

Mom and Dad spent their retirement years traveling about the country, which included a trip through Canada, with their 5th wheel Alpenlite camper trailer pulled by Big Red, a Chevy pick-up truck. They traveled coast to coast four times to visit Carol in Wisconsin and Bill in North Carolina and other family and friends. They also had many special times with their travel club, the CIT’s (Channel Islands Travelers), traveling up and down the Pacific coast, and one time to the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

After dad passed away from cancer in 2000, she took up traveling with her travel buddy, Jean Smith, Ginnie’s mother-in-law. Their first, fun-filled trip was to Branson, Missouri. Then, shortly after September 11, 2001, to their children’s dismay, they traveled to Australia and New Zealand. Mom also traveled to Kenya, Africa to see where Mark was serving the Lord through AIM.

In 2011, mom decided the house in Santa Barbara was too much care, so she moved to Sunrise of Seal Beach, where she spent more than 10 happy years. She enjoyed the food, the activities, the outings, and especially the people. For most of her time there, she daily made a “gourmet peanut butter sandwich” and a glass of milk for her lunch.  Her one complaint, though, was that the “closets shrunk her clothes”. After declining over the last several years with dementia, she went to be united in heaven with her beloved husband and her son Bill, along with many other precious family members and friends.

We will miss you mom, but your legacy lives on in your surviving children, grandchildren and many generations to come.