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After a courageous journey with cancer lasting more than a decade, Beverly Byers passed away at Western Horizons Care Center on March 9, 2025.

A celebration of her life will be Friday, May 30, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. at the Centennial Chapel of Evanson Jensen Funeral Homes in Hettinger, ND followed by a time of fellowship and refreshments before inurnment at Rose Hill Cemetery in Reeder, ND.

Cancer was only one of many challenges Bev faced with courage and grace.  She seldom complained and enjoyed life despite enduring pain as a constant companion.  She loved to read, watch TV, do puzzles, and play games and cards. She looked forward to visiting family and friends.  Her will to live was inspiring.

Beverly Joan was the shy, blue eyed daughter of Elvin and Flora Ellingson born on July 15, 1939.  She attended Glendo country school near their farm in Perkins County, SD.  Leaving home just to attend a state spelling bee with her teacher made her homesick, so living with "sponsors" in town to attend high school was hard for her.  She worked for her room and board, as a car hop at the Knotty Pine Drive-In, and as a candy striper at the hospital.  Bev graduated from Hettinger High School in 1957.  She earned her teaching certificate from Black Hills State Teachers College the following year and taught country school for one year.  Her teaching career came to an end when she married Daryol "Tex" Byers on May 23, 1959, but she remained a teacher at heart.

Tex and Bev not only created a family partnership, they also went into business together, owning and operating the Southwest Machine in Reeder for the next 31 years.  Bev kept the books while Tex showed their kids how to weld, fix things, assemble truck boxes, and sell parts.  Those summer jobs gave Jacki, Jon, and Jeff income for college, memories to last a lifetime, and the honest, hard-working values of their parents.  After school was out in May, the family often took a short vacation before farm work was in full swing.  Tex and Bev felt it was important for their kids to see our beautiful country, but knew that there was no better place to raise a family than their small home town in North Dakota.

Bev was active in the Reeder Congregational Church, Ladies Aid, Prairie Pioneers, TOPS, Cub Scouts, North Dakota Welder's Association, Old Car Club, and Reeder Readers.  They grew a huge garden and kept a pretty yard with lots of flowers.  Tex and Bev participated in community parades, regional car shows and Halloween costume contests, winning first prize on a couple of occasions!  Bev had many good friends and was a loyal confidant.

After retirement in 1990, they hopped aboard their motorhome and hit the road again, touring the country, but mostly visiting their three grandsons.  If you ask the boys, Bev was the best granny in the world.  She was patient, playful, and attentive.  They loved it when she read to them (especially when she mispronounced the names of the characters in Harry Potter!)  Even as adults, they remained very close to her.

Bev was a voracious reader all of her life, and her kids teased her that she must have been a librarian in a previous life, because not only did she read books, she collected them.  But it was actually more likely that she was a book store owner, because she also collected greeting cards.  If you didn't receive a card from her recently, rest assured that there was probably one written, addressed, and stamped for you, just never mailed.  (Her intentions were always greater than her follow through.)

Bev was curious about everything: space, science, history, birds, plants, genealogy, medicine, nutrition, geography, you name it.  She could name the presidents, in order, from Washington to Trump.  She cut out newspaper clippings and made notes in the margins.  She collected recipes and quotations.  She thought every craft and hobby was worthy of a go and started more projects than a single human could hope to complete in a single lifetime.

Tex died suddenly on March 9, 2006.  Bev carried on without him in the same house she had moved into as a newlywed, but it was a lot to take care of.  In 2011, she broke her leg, a devastating injury that never completely healed.  With her mobility compromised and the house not really accessible, it became necessary to move to assisted living in Hettinger in 2017.  Reluctant at first, she met close friends and care givers at Western Horizons, and enjoyed almost seven years there.  Then, a third round of breast cancer turned into bone cancer which required a move to skilled nursing care in June, 2024.  Bev's continued strength inspired her family as well as her care-givers.  To those who cared for her with compassion and kindness, we are forever grateful.

Bev never let the health issues that may have crushed the average spirit define her.  She went on with her life and found purpose.  She was a wonderful mother and grandmother, a loyal friend and sister, and a kind and compassionate person.  If you knew her, you were lucky indeed.

She leaves behind a family who loved her very much and are grateful for her life; children, Jacki (Randy) Schoenrock, Jon (Charmaine) Byers, Jeff Byers, grandsons Zachary Byers, Levi Schoenrock, Sawyer (Kaley) Schoenrock, sister Kathy (Zack) Jones, brother-in-law Darwin Huiner, sisters-in-law Margie Frandsen and Kaye Hofland, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Bev was preceded in death by her husband, Tex, parents, Elvin and Flora Ellingson, sister, Cleo Huiner, sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Joe Materna, brother and sister-in-law Phillip and Sharon Ellingson, mother and father-in-law Benton and Marge Byers, sister-in-law Skeeter Grosulak, brother-in-law Bob Frandsen, brother-in-law Brad Hofland, and brother and sister-in-law Bill and LaVaughn Byers.