Beverly A. Ralph

Beverly Ann Herriott Ralph was born April 24th 1939 at New Castle Hospital in Pennsylvania to Kenneth and Mildred Herriott. She grew up in the small northeast Ohio town of East Palestine with her older brother Charles Herriott, her younger brother Richard Herriott and her stepsister Miriam Morris

( Foster).

As a child she spent many summers at Camp Fitch, a YMCA camp that her niece Chelsea Herriott and her children still attend and many days at the community pool. Her father Kenneth would rent a large home on Lake Erie. He would invite many families to join them creating a summer long carnival atmosphere where the kids could go into the town of Geneva, swim in the lake, boat and do other fun activities. These summers were typical even into her college years.

As a teenager she attended East Palestine High School. She excelled in clarinet and like her brother Charles was a member of the high school marching and concert band.

After graduating high school in 1957 she was accepted to Muskingum College located in New Concord Ohio. She lived in a barracks type dormitory. It was there that she met Faye Guessell ( White ), one of her 23 roommates, who became a life-long friend. Faye would invite Beverly to her home in McConnelsville on weekends. During one of those weekends Beverly was introduced by Faye to Jon Ralph who coincidentally was home from Marietta College. Bev and Jon started a long-distance relationship during which time Beverly ended up at Ohio State University and Jon working as a draftsman in Zanesville. After a year and a half of the long-distance relationship Beverly married Jon at Christmas time in 1959. They bought a house trailer in Malta Ohio, moved it to Marietta and then on to Columbus where Jon found a new drafting job and had been accepted at Ohio State.

Beverly was very close to her older brother Charles as they relied heavily on each other growing up. Charles had joined the Navy and was stationed in French Morocco. In July of 1959 he returned to the United States to change duty stations. While home, he tragically died in an accident. Beverly, the family and the entire community were deeply saddened. She never really got over his passing.

In December of 1960, Beverly had the first of two sons. She named him Charles after Beverly’s deceased brother and in 1962 their second son Steven was born.

After Jon’s graduation the family moved to Sharonville Ohio to be near Jon’s engineering job at General Electric. Two years later, in 1966 the family moved again to Lebanon Ohio. In Lebanon she used her degree in accounting, which she received from a secretarial school in Youngstown, to work for a former Ohio State Representative and family friend named Attorney Cedric Stanley.

In 1971 Beverly decided she wanted to go back to college. She applied and was accepted into Miami University of Ohio. Her major was Fine Arts with a focus on pottery. She also was seated as second clarinet in the university symphony. In 1974 she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts and started her first entrepreneurial endeavor called The Potter’s Wheel. She created a studio in the basement of their Lebanon home where she threw, glazed and fired her pottery creations. She spent countless hours every day down in the basement, extruding the clay, mixing chemicals together to make her own glazes, and firing her pottery in her kiln. We would always know the days she would be “throwing” because those days when she emerged from the basement she would be covered in clay. And kiln days are remembered by the pinging sounds of her pottery as it cooled down from over two thousand degrees. It seemed magical that when the pottery entered the kiln it was drab and grey, but as she pulled it out after firing it was transformed into beautiful pieces of art. She then would attend various festivals and art shows where she would sell her pottery. She would drag the whole family along if we didn’t have legitimate excuses.

In 1977 the family moved to West Palm Beach Florida. Beverly become involved in the local arts. She volunteered and later sat on the Board of the Junior Opera Guild. She was responsible setting, procuring and creating props used in the Opera productions. For one production, perhaps Verdi’s Aida, she wanted to use the family dog Brutus as one of the props. Unfortunately when other animals appeared on stage previous to Brutus’s appearance, he would bark and bark. His stage career come to an end.

She also sat on the board for Joan Miller’s Palm Beach Ballet Center and was a Sunfest Jazz Festival volunteer and judge for the juried art show.

Soon her entrepreneurial spirit led her to become a Licensed Interior Designer and she opened “Artistic Interior Designs”. She changed the business name to include her name to “Bev Ralph Interior Designer”. Throughout her many years as interior designer she became ASID certified and worked on many residential homes, condominiums, commercial establishments and even refurbished the interior of a large trawler named “Hot Topic”.

Beverly and Jon toured Europe by bus. Later she toured Greece, The Greek Isles and Egypt. She was delighted to be able to actually see the art treasures and real artifacts that she had studied in her Art History text books.

To maintain her certifications she enrolled in two study abroad programs. The first to Italy entitled “Classical Design in Italy” in Venice, the Veneto and Florence and the second to Paris entitled “Classical French Design” in Paris. She maintained these were “continuing education” classes but we all knew she just wanted to be able to write off her European vacations.

Beverly loved Airedale dogs and Siamese cats. She almost always had at least one of each in her home until she down-sized her living space. She rescued several cats including her last cat named Tiger who misses her ( and one of his eyes ) dearly. She became known as the “cat lady” by her neighbors because she leash trained Tiger and would take him on walks.

Beverly will be fondly remembered for her love of the Arts, her activism for women’s rights and her strong and true character. She was never afraid to stand up to anyone who tried to take advantage of her because of her sex. Because of her convictions she helped pave the way for all women, including my wife, daughters and granddaughters to have equal rights.

Beverly was a sophisticated woman. Her English was perfect, and her attire impeccable. She was seldom seen without a scarf and a brooch which made it all more hilarious when she would tell a risqué joke.

Beverly was a beautiful soul. She was caring and generous to no ends. Everyone who was fortunate enough to know her are forever better because of it.

Beverly Ann Herriott Ralph is survived by her previous husband Jon Ralph, their sons Charles Ralph ( Holly) and Steve Ralph (Cynthia), grandchildren, Lauren Moon (Chloe), Jennifer and Jessica Ralph, great-grandchildren Jaida Ralph and Camilla Donham, brother Richard Herriott (Tara), and step sister Miriam Foster (Allen) . She is predeceased by her parents, Kenneth and Mildred Herriott, stepmother Ruth Herriott and brother Charles Herriott.

Beverly Ann Herriott Ralph passed peacefully on September 11, 2020.

True to Beverly’s character, she donated her body to science. Even in death, the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine will benefit from her generosity.

Rest in peace Beverly, Bets, Mom, Grand-mom, Great grand-mom, Aunt Bev.