JEANBETH HILL
graduated to her Heavenly Home on April 18, 2021, surrounded by her loving family. JeanBeth was born at the old Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., on Sept. 23, 1954, to Betty Jean (Akin) Hill and Louis Dalton Hill. She had her beautiful smile from the beginning. She lived her early years in Searcy and began her education at Meadowcliff Elementary in Little Rock. She graduated with honors in 1972 from Little Rock Central High School, where she was a member of the High Steppers. She graduated with honors with an accounting degree from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and was selected a Reddie Star. She was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and met her life-long friend, Emily (Crutchfield) Richesin, on the first day of their freshman year. JeanBeth served as chapter president her junior year, and the chapter was honored as the National Chapter of the Year.
She began her accounting career with Twin City Bank in North Little Rock, then moved to Allied Telephone Company in Little Rock. She worked for Allied and its successor companies, Alltel Corporation and Verizon Communications, for 33 years, retiring in 2011. She held many positions of responsibility, was admired by her fellow employees, and made many life-long friends. Upon retirement, JeanBeth set out to conquer the world of duplicate bridge at the Little Rock Bridge House. She had played socially with her mother and friends for many years, and she found this new world a tremendous challenge and an opportunity to make many more new friends, and to renew acquaintances with others. She even enjoyed the challenge of playing online during the pandemic with LR Bridge Club members and others from all over the world with her oft-times partner, John Mueller, and several others.
JeanBeth loved live theater, and she and her husband of 33 years, Charles Galloway, attended hundreds of community theater and professional productions across the country. She was a regular at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, The Rep, Robinson Auditorium, and the Orpheum, often seeing the same play multiple times. JeanBeth was a strong woman of faith and an active member of Asbury United Methodist Church in Little Rock. The New Directions Sunday School Class provided a source of many devoted and caring friends, fellowship, support, and fun-filled adventures. JeanBeth also had a regular volunteer job at Asbury and participated in numerous fundraisers. Her faith became very important to her as she battled her many medical challenges beginning with a breast cancer diagnosis in 1996. She was diagnosed with AML leukemia in 1998 and was honored to receive a life-saving bone marrow transplant from a matched unrelated donor, Lori Elkum of East Wenatchee, Wash. At subsequent appointments, doctors would read JeanBeth’s medical file and do a double-take upon seeing the healthy, alert patient before them. If you are not already registered as a bone marrow donor, please consider doing so in JeanBeth’s honor at bethematch.org. You too can save a life.
Cancer returned in different forms in 2004, 2005 and 2012. This last cancer recurred twice and was ultimately the cause of her death. When asked if the bone marrow transplant could be related to these later cancers, her doctors said they didn’t know because patients didn’t usually live long enough to study what happened afterwards. Lori and JeanBeth are helping researchers learn more about fighting this deadly disease, providing hope for others with a cancer diagnosis.
Through 25 years of countless needle sticks, hospital stays, infusions, transfusions, proven and experimental therapies, JeanBeth continued in her faith, kept smiling and moved forward to the next challenge. She did not let cancer define her life and was a hero to many. The family extends a special THANK YOU to Dr. Mariann Harrington, the staffs at CARTI and M. D. Anderson, and all the doctors, nurses, specialists and others who provided such compassionate care for JeanBeth on this long and challenging journey.
JeanBeth is preceded in death by her father, Louis Dalton Hill, her grandparents, Louis and Roberta Hill (Beebe), and Guy and Ramah Lee Akin (Floyd). She is survived by her mother, and devoted caregiver, Betty Hill, husband, Charles Galloway, and Charles’ children, Sean Galloway, Sherry Ann McKinney (Leonard II), and Shane Galloway. She is also survived by grandchildren, Brenna, Kalen Rose, Christopher, Matthew, Victoria, Leonard, Jonathon, Brittney, Drew, CalenJohn, and four great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her aunt, Wanda Price, her cousins, Rhonda Shelman (Larry) and Barry Sproul (Julie), other family, and a host of caring friends.
Visitation with the family will be held at 2 to 4 p.m., on Sunday, May 2, 2021, at Roller Chenal Funeral Home, 13801 Chenal Parkway, in Little Rock. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at the same location at 1 p.m., on Monday, May 3, 2021. Interment will be at the Reverend Thomas E. Weir Meditation Garden and Columbarium at Asbury United Methodist Church, at 1700 Napa Valley Drive, in Little Rock, immediately following this service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Asbury United Methodist Church, the Arkansas Repertory Theater, the Arkansas Food Bank, the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society or to your favorite charity. To sign the online guest book, please visit: www.rollerfuneralhomes.com/chenal.