Beverly Patricia Jones was born in Duluth, Minnesota on June 10, 1924. When she was two months old her father John Beverley Jones was killed while successfully rescuing two young people who were drowning in a bay just off Lake Superior. Beverly’s mother died in 1936. Without surviving grandparents and siblings, Beverly was raised by her great aunt and uncle. Beverly’s 18th birthday was a few months after Pearl Harbor and just after the successful battles at Midway Island. Based in Detroit, Michigan, Beverly devoted her early career to the war effort.

 

In July 1944 she traveled to Wichita, Kansas to marry her sweetheart David Sewall Searles of Detroit, Michigan. David was finishing his training as a B-24 Flying Fortress pilot. David shipped out to England with the 8th Army Air Force in early August 1944 a few days after his wedding, and Beverly returned to Detroit to care for David’s mother and her aunts and uncles. Beverly’s husband David was critically injured in a B-24 crash on Christmas Eve 1944 and Beverly was at his side during almost 20 months of reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation. When Beverly was 28 and David was 30, they entered the hospitality industry initially in Boothbay Harbor, Maine with three young sons. Her fourth son was born while they ran the Green Shutters Inn and Cottages in Boothbay Harbor. Beverly’s commitment to the war effort starting in 1942 and in the hospitality industry beginning in 1952, led her to a lifelong compassion as a consummate hostess and caregiver.

 

In the 1960’s after relocating to Fort Lauderdale Florida in the hospitality and government service field, Beverly continued her passionate caring for others and volunteered as a Candy Striper in the local hospital. She cared for invalid elderly and dying friends and family. Beverly was executive secretary for the entire Board of Commissioners of Broward County which for 30 years was one of the fastest growing counties in America.