Jean C. Beecher ^{2 3 4 5}

   FamilySearch ID: L6YX-5KQ.

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Census in 1930 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. ² The 1930 census recorded owning an $8000 home at 1214 S. 36th Street in Philadelphia: Lew Beecher, druggist, 38, lliving with wife Clara, 33; daughter Jean, 2 years 6 months; son William, 7; and mother-in-law Claire Bellows, 73. Everyone and their parents were born in Pennsylvania, except Claire's mother in Maryland. Lew was married at age 25, Clira at age 20.

2. Census in 1940 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. ³ The 1940 census recorded at 1214 56th Street: Calra [Clara] Beecher, sales clerk, 43, widow, living son Wm F., 17; and daughter Jean C., 12. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania.

3. Census in 1950 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. ⁷ The 1950 census recorded at 1214 South 56th Street: Clara Beecher, clerk for naval base, widowed, 49, living with son William L. Beecher, clerk for life insurance company, 27, and his wife Beverly J., typist for automobile insurance company, 24, and Clara's daughter Jean C. Beecher, typist for life insurance company, 22. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania except Beverly in Iowa.

4. Residence: 101 Verona Rd, Broomall, PA 19008 in 2009 in Broomall, Delaware, PA. ⁶

5. Obituary: Logan Funeral Home: obituary of Jean Beecher Fenton on 3 Jan 2024 in Broomall, Delaware, PA. ⁴ Jean Beecher Fenton, 96, of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, died peacefully on January 3, 2024. She was the loving wife of Robert W. Fenton until his death in 1998.
Jean was born in Philadelphia to Clara (Bellows) and Lew Wallace Beecher. Her father, a pharmacist, died when Jean was only 7 and her brother William was 12, leaving their mother to take a position at the Philadelphia Navy Yard to support them. Jean met her husband Bob when they were high school students in West Philadelphia, where their families lived just a block apart. Both families navigated the hardships of the Depression and World War II, with Jean's brother joining the US Air Force and Bob on a Navy submarine stationed in the Philippines. At home, Jean and her mother dealt with rations and blackouts, drawing deeply from their wells of resourcefulness and humor.
After graduating from high school, where she was named Color Guard Captain, Jean worked for several years at Penn Mutual Insurance Company on Washington Square in Philadelphia. She had an eye for fashion and enthusiasm for the arts and attended theatre productions as a member of First Nighters. On marrying and moving to Broomall, Jean and Bob raised four children\emdash an effort that Jean invested with unconventional imagination and encouragement, actively indulging and supporting her children's wide-ranging interests and aptitudes. Across the years, Jean and Bob hosted countless holiday dinners with the lively extended family. Vacations were often beachside, a setting for which she felt great nostalgia\emdash from childhood stays at family homes in Ocean City to later years at the Outer Banks and in Florida.
With the next generation of six grandchildren, Jean, as was her way, lavished each with individual love and attention. In recent years, she sold the family home in Broomall and for two years gamely and happily rotated among her children's homes in Devon, Glenmoore, Kingston NY, and Plantation FL. Each family folded her into their lives, enlarging her world to include their good food and welcoming friends\emdash until the difficulties of travel and living from a suitcase prompted her move to a cozy apartment in Downingtown, and eventually to White Horse Village.
All those in Jean's orbit basked in her ageless natural beauty and glamor, and knew she possessed an unusual intelligence she would never admit to, a sharp memory and stubborn practicality, deep soulfulness, an endearing capacity for silliness, and a piercing love for her family. We each know that spot in our home, where we still see her reading glasses lying on a book and still hear her insistent offer of food to everyone else, before taking her own first bite at the table.
Jean is survived by her devoted children and grandchildren: Leslie Fenton (Thomas Gibbons; grandson Benjamin), Robert Fenton (Janet; granddaughters Taylor Chen [Michael] and Jacqulyn Fenton), Amy Fenton-Shine (Pablo), and Gray Fenton (grandsons Ian, Gray, and Blaise); and by many beloved nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Donations can be made in Jean's name to Feeding America at www.feedingamerica.org or to a local food bank of your choice.

Jean married Robert W. Fenton in 1951 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.¹ (Robert W. Fenton was born on 22 Jun 1926 in Girard, Erie, PA ^{8 9} and died on 31 Mar 1998 in Broomall, Delaware, PA ⁸.)