Beverly J. Kuhn

Beverly Jean Kuhn (July 2,

1927 - August 3, 2021) Beverly Jean Kuhn, an Ohio native who said “warsh” instead of wash and loved animals, breakfast, the news, Disney, genealogy, sunglasses, dancing, a good Singapore Sling and most of all her family, peacefully passed away at her daughter’s home in Delray Beach, Florida on Tuesday August 3,

2021 surrounded by her loving and devoted family. Beverly was born July 2, 1927, in Hubbard, Ohio, to Hally Leona Dunkerley (1909-1938), and Jack McNally (19051962). Beverly’s 94 years on this earth were met with great adversity, but she was the embodiment of “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” In fact, her strength is her greatest legacy. Since birth, Beverly’s eyes were degenerating from a genetic disorder called Retinitis Pigmentosa, but for a period of time she was able to see with spectacles so thick they looked like magnifying glasses. Her parents were young when they had her so her maternal grandparents Harry William Dunkerley (1873-1940) and Pearl Brockett Dunkerley

(1880-1955) legally adopted her at birth. Beverly never knew her father who served in the Marine Corps and her mother died of rabies when she was only 11 years old. Beverly worked extremely hard from a very young age despite her eyesight continually deteriorating. At 28, she married airmen William James Kuhn (1929-1994) on Aug.

19, 1955 in Cocoa Beach, FL. They had three children, Cheryl Denise Kuhn (1956-1999), Debra Lynn Kuhn (1958) and Roger Alan Kuhn (1962-). When Beverly’s glasses stopped working and her sight was almost completely gone, Beverly and William divorced. Beverly was left to raise her three young children alone, but just like she never gave up on them, they never gave up on her and the four of them did whatever they could to survive and stay together. Now completely blind and living in Miami, her children took care of her with the same enormous amount of love and compassion she showed them. In

1999, she was forced to do the unimaginable and buried her oldest daughter, Cheryl. Despite darkness taking her sight, she never allowed it to consume her life. Beverly was a light and joy to so many, especially her grandchildren. Beverly, who went by Nana, never had the ability to ever see Debra’s daughters Ashleigh and Britannia and notice how her granddaughters have her eyes and her smile, but she could tell that their deepest and most significant similarities came from within, especially their love of laughter. Beverly never missed a grandparent’s day at school and all of Ashleigh’s and Britannia’s friends instantly adopted Nana as their own. Everyone wanted Beverly as their Nana and she had more than enough love to go around. She also had an abundance of humor and wit. Beverly was the original twitter, breaking the latest news stories to all of her family members like a professional news anchor and delivering the stories with the same tone no matter the severity. Beverly took great pride in staying informed about a world she could no longer see and voted in every single election since she was 18 years old because she knew that it mattered. When she wasn’t breaking the top news stories, she was eating breakfast and it didn’t matter the time of day. She loved all eggs, but especially egg sandwiches on white bread with mayo cut into diagonal fours, link sausages, danishes, jelly donuts and her coffee pitch-black. Oh, and she never opposed a double-stuffed Oreo cookie on her plate for breakfast dessert. She was as sweet as her tooth, especially with animals. A lifelong animal lover, when Beverly first started to lose her sight she used seeing eye dogs who were in love with her just as much as she was with them. The strong companionship between Beverly and her dogs was unlike any other. Honestly, there wasn’t a single dog that Beverly ever met that didn’t immediately pick up on her special energy and love her. Beverly’s spirit was contagious like that, especially when she was at Disney with her family. Debra and Roger absolutely loved bringing their mother to the parks and she always had the best time with them. Beverly rode every ride until she couldn’t. Her true grit and sense of adventure can be dated back to her high school days when she swallowed a real, live goldfish on a string as an initiation to join a sorority in high school and no, the goldfish was not harmed. Ohio apparently had very strange traditions. Tough as nails, she took part in another Ohio tradition and walked miles in the freezing cold snow to school and anywhere else she wanted to go because her family didn’t have a car. Beverly understood that it cost nothing to be kind. She always brought so much joy to everyone around her and everyone who met her knew that all the wealth in the world could never buy her strength. In that sense, she was wealthier than most. Beverly was so deeply loved and her family owes her everything for reminding us all what really matters, one’s perspective. Leave it to a blind woman to teach us the right way to see the world. Beverly is survived by her half sister Ann Smith Kresovich; her children, Debra and James Tomasello, Roger and Iris Kuhn; her grandchildren, Ashleigh and Saul Castagnello, Britannia and Brian Fragakis, Tina and James Tomasello II, and great-grandchildren Aaron, Matthew and Jason Tomasello;

Forever Our Heart, Forever Our Nana, Forever Loved.

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