This is but a short biography, but will include a fair amount of her life story as necessary to reveal her passion for teaching.
Violet Beatrice Anderton born October 22, 1948 to Robert E Lee Anderton and Jeanette Young Anderton in Chattanooga Tennessee.
She grew up in Dade County Georgia. This is extreme Northwest Georgia on Sand Mountain. She attended Davis elementary, middle, and high school. After completion, she continued her education in North Alabama State community college in Rainsville, Alabama. It was here that she met Mary Hill. The two soon became best friends as they were both pursuing a degree in teaching and had many of the same classes.
Mary Hill had come from a religious family and enjoyed sharing her beliefs, whereas Beatrice’s family were Christians but considered Easter, Christmas and a few other special days as the only real need to go to church. A few months into their friendship, Mary’s church was conducting an evangelistic crusade. Upon being invited, Beatrice attended the meetings with her friend. Being used to studying together they now added the study of the Bible together. As their studies continued Beatrice became convicted that Christ wanted more than an occasional acquaintance with her. Before long she knew she wanted more than a nominal knowledge of Him.
She was soon baptized into the Floral Crest Seventh-day Adventist church. This created more than a little friction at home.
Being the oldest of three girls, with both parents working, she was the one expected to take care of the housework, younger sisters, and help with farm chores. She enjoyed doing all of the above, that was not the problem. The problem was, mornings, evenings, and Sunday’s were not enough to keep everything done and she was now taking Saturday’s as her Sabbath. This especially irritated her dad as it was approaching spring and soon there would be garden to plant, and then hay to get in for the cattle, and he expected her help. In fact, he even was threatening to have her committed for she had to have gone crazy. Surely God would not ask for a full day of anyone’s time. She should at least come home Saturday afternoon and do a day’s work.
She, and her friend Mary were praying about the situation. Mary’s husband, Tony was farming a good many acre of gladiolas, as well as having several greenhouses, and looking to hire some summer help. Beatrice was a young adult, of age and decided to go to work for the summer and live with them, rather than live at home and continue to be a sore spot for her dad on Saturdays. Come fall she would be starting her career of teaching at age 19.
Meanwhile, some 80 miles to the north in Dayton Tennessee, Tony’s younger brother Bob, was considering his summer work. He had been used to working with his dad on their farm and nursery. However, his parents thought it might do him good to get away for the summer and help his brother, who was needing someone that could run the tractor and farm equipment. As much as it is beginning to sound like it, this was not a planned meeting by anyone except God.
As Bob would say many times later, he was looking for a back door to the church to head out, when he paused long enough to see who this pretty thing was that was coming in the front door. He was the rebel of the family and wanted to see what else was out there.
Bob and Beatrice worked together from early to late six days a week and went to church together the seventh, Saturday. They really were having a chance to get to know each other. Many mornings, it was Beatrice that was up and fixed breakfast, for that’s what she was used to doing. Then they would be out working, many times together, cutting and bunching the flowers for market. As summer progressed, they had every opportunity to see each other at their best, and at their worst. Nice sunny days, and rainy, bad hair days. As Beatrice would say later, if Bob didn’t like her cooking, he had plenty of opportunity to know it in advance. When fall came Bob went back to Tennessee but found every opportunity to spend most weekends on Sand Mountain where they attended church together. Beatrice had gone back home as things had improved, and started her first teaching job at Bryant Junior High School, Bryant Alabama. Beatrice taught a couple of English classes, some math classes, World history, and the girls PE teacher. Along with that she was also the cheerleaders sponsor. They dated through the winter, and in the spring when the flowers start blooming, they were married on Sunday April 13, 1969 at Bob’s parents home in Dayton Tennessee.
Beatrice finished teaching the school year at Bryant Junior High and they worked another summer together on Tony’s Farm.This summer Bob also did some of the deliveries within a 300 mile radius of the farm in his brothers refrigerated truck. When fall of 1969 came, the small one room SDA school on Ogden road, from which Bob had gone through 8th grade was looking for a teacher. Beatrice took the position. She had grades 1-8 minus one or two grades with 16 students. She taught here 2 years, then a third year with the combined students of Ogden Road SDA school and Lauralbrook Elementary, with Lauralbrook providing her, an Academy student as teachers aid.
In the summers she was back in school continuing her education at Southern Missionary Collage, (now Southern Adventist University). During this third year in Tennessee, Beatrice was expecting their first child which was born on April 12, 1972 missing their third anniversary by one day. At Bob’s and her in-law’s insistence, she took off as the due date approached, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, still no baby but Wednesday night she went into labor for what would be 23 hr. before Robert II was born Thursday evening. Friday they, (Beatrice and baby) were released from the hospital to go home. After 2 days at home, (Sabbath and Sunday) Beatrice was trying to convince her husband and in-law’s that no substitute would be able to do what was needed for her students during these last six weeks of school to prepare them for the next year. So, with a total of one week off, (and she would have taught Mon, Tue, and Wed, if she had had her way) she was back in the classroom to finish out the year while Bob’s mother which lived nearby, looked after the newborn, Robert II.
For Beatrice, teaching was not just her profession, it was her passion. Yes, it was tiring but she loved the fulfillment of seeing the look in a student’s eyes when they “got it”. She also loved that she was teaching in a church school as she not only got to study the stories of the Bible, many for the first time, she also got to teach about her friend, Jesus’s life. And to tell stories, which she loved as much as the children loved hearing her tell them. She knew just where to add that suspense, and where to put in the extra excitement in her voice.
After their first child, Beatrice told her hubby as she called Bob, I had the first one, you can have the next one, we will take turns. Well, one was all they had as hubby never came through with his “next one”.
About this same time, late spring-early summer Beatrice’s dad was having some heart problems and was needing assistance with the putting up of hay and other farm work associated with a cattle farm. Bob, who had been working in Dayton, had now taken a job at BCBS in Chattanooga, Tennessee so it was just as close to commute from Sand Mtn. as it was from Dayton Mtn. This made it easier to spend Sundays there. And yes, Bea’s parents had gotten used to Beatrice and her husband Bob taking Saturday off, though they never saw the importance of it themselves.
Beatrice started teaching at the Floral Crest SDA School, having only two grades now, 3rd and 4th. And she was loving it.
By now nearly everyone knew them simply as Bob & Bea. Bea taught at Floral Crest during the school year and went to summer school at SAU. She graduated from SAU with her degree in Elementary Education, but was frequently taking classes either to recertify, or simply to further her knowledge, especially in the field of early childhood development or religion.
Bob, was taking night classes at CSCC in the new field of Computer Science and working days at BCBS of TN. in the Computer Data Center.
Five years and Bob had tired of a cubical and was ready to try something else. He had always enjoyed driving, anything that had wheels, so he bought a truck, an 18-wheeler truck. Having never been in one before, he bob-tailed it to and from work for the two weeks while working out his notice. Now he was ready to go trucking.
Bea, having been teaching at Floral Crest during this time was becoming known in the circle of teachers in the Larger area of the Southern Union, and was given a call to take a position at a school in St. Petersburg, FL
With Bob’s change of direction and Bea’s dad doing better it was possible to make the move. St. Pete here we come.
Bea taught one year here before becoming the principal as well as teaching two grades.
Florida, and the land of year around vacation was to be short lived as Bea’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. There was a school in sub-burb Atlanta, Douglassville, that was looking for a Principle / upper grades teacher as the students had run off 2 the previous year. This would put Bea within a two-hour drive from seeing her mother. The move was made.
Yes, you read the last part correctly, the students had run off the previous 2 principles in one year. But they had not encountered Bea. She loved her students, and they knew it. But she required order and respect in her class room. It did not take long before they knew that Mrs. Bea meant what she said, and that she was not going anywhere. She would be there the next day to face again.
Up until, and including this last Christmas 2018, ( she had spent much of the last week of Nov. and first week of Dec. just before she died), doing her Christmas cards. She had already sent out and received cards from former students, including the ones she had loved, and that loved her, at Douglassville. The ones that didn’t run her off. They listed her as their favorite teacher. She had set boundaries, and they understood them. They loved her for caring enough to stand up to them, and later “for them” in their best interest. They were some of the brightest students, but they can be your biggest challenge. You have to challenge them to be all they can be.
Bob & Bea knew that Douglassville would not be a long stay as neither of them wanted to raise their son in the city environment. During Bea’s teaching years on Sand Mtn. Bobs parents had sold the farm in TN where they had spent many years and where Bob and his brothers had grown up. Being originally from Florida and looking for a place with a little warmer winter, they had bought property near friends in central AL. With two of Bob’s business customers in the Birmingham area, Bob & Bea had bought adjoining acreage with his parents.
After three years in Douglassville they left Georgia and moved to the country west of Montgomery, AL in the spring of 1983 and started building on their house.
After having been in a classroom as a teacher for 15 year, Bea hung up the classroom for a while but not her love of teaching. Between helping with and seeing to the details of a house under construction, keeping her husband Bob’s calendar straight as to where he was supposed to be and when (he was on the road 4 days most weeks) and no, there was no cell phones yet to make sure all was going well, they managed to get involved with Pathfinders. Once a Pathfinder always a Pathfinder, at least that is what Bob thought. He had grown up a Pathfinder, Bea had gotten introduced to it in Tennessee not long after they were married, had been involved at Floral Crest, and helped restart one in St. Petersburg that had not been active the previous few years before their arrival. In Selma it was only natural to get involved in youth activities again.
It did not take Bill Wood, the new youth / Pathfinder Director for the Gulfstates Conference to see that he had a “teacher” in the area that loved kids, and they loved her, and loved to listen to her. She was a great story teller.
She soon went from being locally involved to being asked to do training seminars for new youth leaders and club directors.
In 1985, two years after Bob & Bea moved to Alabama, the North American Division Pathfinder Club had their first ever Division Wide Camporee and invited 10,000 Pathfinders to Colorado. The local club, decided not to get involved and make the trip into the unknown. Bea thought it would be a great experience for their son, and Bob, always ready to “go”, asked Bill Wood, how can we go, not being a club? Pastor Bill said “no problem” or something to that effect, you can go as part of my staff, pull a trailer out with an entryway for our conference and things I will need, get there Sunday before and help me set up for our clubs. Bob said “sounds like a plan, count us in”. They invited two classmates of Roberts, sisters that lived just up the road, (in the country that is next door) that had become like sisters to him since his move from Georgia. They had become good friends in the 6th and 7th grades and would be graduating from the 8th together the following year. Plans were made, someone to drive the truck and tend to business in their absence, motor home rented, trailer loaded, kids loaded, and the five of them were off to Colorado, three weeks before camporee. Yes, it is a long way from Alabama to Colorado, if you go the way Bob goes. No, not that he is slow, just that “on the way” included, Carlsbad Caverns, NM, Grand Canyon, AZ, Hoover Dam, NV, a dip in the Pacific Ocean at Moro Bay, CA, the Giant Sequoias, Death Valley, Masa Verde, and the Great Sand Dunes to name a few of the stops “on the way” to Leadville, CO and the big event. They spent the last Sabbath close by and rolled in Sunday morning ready to be “Pastor Bill’s crew. They had a great week and returned home ready to “do it again”. Many of their “vacations” became extensions of Pathfinder activities or in a few years, mission trips.
Their son Robert graduated the 8th grade from Clanton SDA school spring of 1986 and headed off to Bass Academy in the fall.
With no classroom full of students, and Robert away at academy, Bea did not fall victim to the “empty nest syndrome”. She started making more trips with her husband Bob and soon had her own CDL. (commercial driver’s license) Now when he needed an extra truck for a heavy week, he could rent one, and she would drive her own. Usually following but not always. Bea was Bob’s teammate in so many ways.
Soon after that trip to Camp Hale, Colorado Camporee, Pastor Bill along with the Pathfinder Leaders of Gulfstates Conference decided they wanted a Pathfinder Council, to help with the effective running of the events and activities that were needed, and, that they wanted to start in the conference.
You guessed it, Bea and Bob were asked to set on the council. No, that’s no typo. In some circles it was Bob & Bea, but in others it was Bea & Bob. When it came to teaching, running leadership training workshops, Bea was in her arena. This was where her skills, her enthusiasm, her passion for teaching and sharing her love for her Savior shown. And it was contagious. This is where Bob knew to step aside, or better yet, to back her up, set up her props, to build her theme devices, to make sure her sound system was working and the projector / computer was in place and ready. Yes, they were a team in their volunteer work also.
One of the first things the Pathfinder Council tackled was the issue, how do we involve our youth to help them see the importance of a continual relationship with their Creator / Savior? These are teens, youth, they are full of energy. Not interested in setting down and listening. They want to be “doing”. Bob, being an outdoors, hands on person, started the weekend caving event and later the rock-climbing teen events. These were his suggestions, and on this council, you didn’t make suggestions if you were not willing to implement them. Another teacher, Pathfinder leader, son of a teacher / leader, Dan Whitlow and his wife Lisa were active on and chaired the council. They, along with Bob & Bea began to envision a two-week summer teen mission trip. If you have teachers leading out, there is going to be teaching involved. The idea was to take a bus load of youth, travel to a part of the country that most had not seen, do a little sight-seeing to help generate interest in going, and then train / equip them to teach / conduct Vacation Bible School for the children in that area. Bob was all aboard, this involved “going”, hay, somebody has got to drive the bus, it may as well be him. Besides, he comes with his own co-driver for those long trips, his wife Bea. Bea gets in gear for planning VBS, including skits to keep the children’s interest while teaching lessons, puppets to use to teach and tell stories, lesson plans, working with someone to do the crafts, activities… and the list goes on. Bob has work projects to plan for, tools to load up, material list to put together, bus to ready. Using the academy bus, Bob secures his pickup to the back of the bus, (is going to need it for one of the work projects with a portable welder in the back), they load up and head west to the Navajo reservation in NM. The year is 1990 and this will be the first of 28 teen mission trips over the next 22 years. Bea as back in the saddle again. Teaching, and teaching the youth to teach the stories and life lessons from the Bible. Over the years they travel with many different staff that came and went. Some for a trip, others for many years that become like family. And teens, yes hundreds over the years had the opportunity to have Ms. Bea as their teacher through these summer trips. Many returned so many years that they just moved into staff positions.
And it worked. The teens, if you asked them after they got back what was their favorite part of the trip, their eyes would light up with enthusiasm as they would tell you about the different children from VBS or the work project they liked the best, and the stories would go on. But rarely would it be about the Grand Canyon, or Mt. Rushmore, or the Columbian Ice Fields of the Canadian Rockies, or the… you get the picture. They were learning that it is “more blessed to give than to receive” but not setting at a desk or reading it from a book. They were experiencing it for themselves. But they would not know that before going. You had to have something of interest to get them on the bus, to give up of their summer time, and raise funds to help make the trip happen.
Beatrice planned and carried out Vacation Bible Schools from AZ in the southwest, to Nova Scotia in eastern Canada. From Alberta western Canada, to the island of Bimini, Bahamas. Along with Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming in between. No one could claim she led a boring or isolated country life. During this time their son Robert, graduated from Bass, got Married, graduated from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and gave them a Grandson, Alex.
When Norm Midag, the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventist youth ministries leader, was wanting to expand a local program started in the DC area called, Eager Beaver to something for the Primary age child, Grades 1-4 and take it nationwide, he talked to Pastor Bill Wood about it. He asked if Gulfstates Conference would be interested in running a pilot program to see what the response to this new children’s ministry would be? Bill replied, sure I would, and I have just the person in mind for the job, Beatrice Hill.
The Adventurer Club was born and Bea found herself not only running it for Gulfstates conference but on the NAD Adventurer advisory board, various comities, and helping write the curriculum. In the years that followed she wrote many of the awards that are used as teaching tools for the children. Volumes of stories, skits, illustrations, ideas for outreach and many other resource books. Teaching was not only her passion, it was her talent, her gift, and she was putting it to use. On the Adventurer board she traveled quite extensively across North America doing training classes on this growing, children’s ministry. At times Bob would take off and make the trips with her, other times she would fly off on her own to do what she did best.
With this being taken on as a “volunteer position” she still spent time doing “work”, sometimes making trips with Bob, at times the conference education dept. would call and ask, are you available to teach at______. The teacher there is going on maternity leave, or we lost a teacher over in ______ and need someone to take it until we can get another teacher. One school was simply up for accreditation evaluation, and knowing Bea had been a part of that evaluation comity, knew what they would be looking for and what was needed to bring their school up to code, they asked her to come over and be the principle for that year. What a challenge. But she did it. Spending the week, then driving home for the weekends. The last school Bea taught at was a 4-hour drive from their house. They lost a teacher during the year and needed her to finish out the year. So, Bob took their 5th wheel camper over and set it up for her weekly living space. Only problem is, the school superintendent left that spring before replacing the teacher, so the school board asked if she would teach another year, giving them time to get another superintendent who in turn would get the new teacher. Some weekends Bea drove home, others if she was needed to stay there for something, Bob was frequently the traveler over to Bea’s camper. That one semester job wound up being a 5- year stay. But Bea was teaching and loving it. One thing Bea had trouble doing, was saying, NO.
If you needed a job done and it was something she could do, she was on it.
When Bob brought the camper home in 2012 from this “short term” assignment, Bea left the classroom environment for the last time. That summer was the last summer teen mission trip also. The Bass Academy was starting a spring break mission trip from the school and feared the 2 trips would be competing for the same teens.
Time to retire? I think not. The teen mission trip for the last many years had been using Southern Adventist University’s bus for their travels. SAU’s transportation department had several MCI coaches that are used not only for their various department travel needs, but also provide transportation for the Collegedale Academy, and area Pathfinder events. Bob and Bea had for a number of years been making a few of there long trips requiring team drivers. Team bus drivers are hard to come by, especially ones that don’t mind being on a bus full of noisy excited kids, teens, or University students as the case could be. So, the B&B team started excepting more trips for the school.
As the school soon discovered, they had a team that the different departments, would ask for. Bea especially enjoyed traveling with the Gym Masters, the band, the various music department trips, the biology class to the Smokey Mountains, the Academy Senior class trip to NY, the 8th grade class trip to Creation Museum then on to Kings Island Amusement park, religion departments New England Heritage tour, Pathfinders and the list could fill the page. She just enjoyed the time with the students. It was another place she could put her talents to work and share Gods love. It was a bus load of kids, youth, or young adults that she got to travel with, hang out with, get to know, and in many cases get to mentor in some way. Yes, still very much a teacher.
If you understand the difference, Bea was not called a teacher because “she taught”, Bea “taught” because she “was” a teacher. It was part of who she was.
I’m going to insert something I found while going through and organizing some of her papers, as I hope to make her resource material available here online at some point. This was a card that I found that, and it describes her perfectly.
I am a teacher
I was born the first moment that a question leaped from the mouth of a child. Throughout the course of a day I have been called upon to be an actor, friend, nurse and doctor, coach, finder of lost articles, money lender, taxi driver, psychologist, substitute parent, salesman, politician, and keeper of the faith. I AM THE MOST FORTUNATE OF ALL WHO LABOR. And who do I have to thank for this most wonderful life I am so fortunate to experience? The parents, who entrust me with their greatest contribution to eternity, their children. I have a past that is rich in memories. I have a present that is challenging, adventurous and fun because I am allowed to spend my days with the future. I am a teacher… and I thank God for it every day. And pray for wisdom to fulfill my trust. That was Bea.
In 2016 after moving from California to Tennessee the “It Is Written” made contact with the transportation dept. at SAU looking for a driver to make a California trip for them. They were given Bob’s number. When they call to ask about making the trip his reply was, we are a team, if I do it, we do it together. The reply was, good then we will plan for the two of you. So, for the last three years they have become part of the It Is Written family and traveled to many locations trucking their audio, video, lighting, equipment, and inventory supplies to be on location when their team arrived.
Bea’s death was unexpected and a shock, but not with out some warning. Two and a half years before, she was experiencing some problems and upon Dr. examination, found she had uterine cancer. The same week she got the positive results back on that, she had severe chest pain that put her in the hospital. She had an artery that was 98% blocked. They put in a stent that relieved the pain almost immediately. Their son Robert, got the wheels rolling at UAB medical cancer center and 3 days later she had robotic surgery and the cancer removed. It was still contained locally and they got it all. We thank the Lord for early detection. 2 ½ years later and she was still cancer free. However, during that time, she began having problems with her heart again. She had had a mitrovalve problem all of her life but the Dr. had said it was not bad enough to warrant the risk of surgery. This time it was going into A-fib and not pumping enough blood. They put her on meds and did a shock-restart and after the second time it seemed to be doing much, much better. Her strength was improving, she was back to walking regularly, just not the 4 miles a day she had been doing, but still improving. They did have her on blood thinner and the med for her heart, one of the side effects is possible blood clots. I am grateful for the additional time we had together. We filled it up with a trip to Alaska, a Caribbean Cruise, as well as other shorter trips and bus tours. Bea was able to take in another “NAD Teachers Convention” in Chicago. Only this time, not as a teacher, she was part of the It Is Written family and was spending time in their booth. Many former teachings colleagues came by when the word got around that she was “in town”. Also, former students that had now taken up the mantle. It was a wonderful experience seeing the love flowing back to her that she had so freely given. She had a great time reconnecting with many.
In October they had opportunity to drive a SAU bus to Battle Creek MI to the Fall Counsel and spend 10 days doing shuttle trips to and from the Airport as well as motels to convention center, and return daily. Again, Bea had the privilege of seeing numerous people that she had worked with or sat on comities with through the years.
They spent most of the month of November on the west coast with It Is Written, (California and Oregon), arriving back on Sand Mountain Thanksgiving Day in time to have dinner with Bea’s sister and her family, their son and daughter-in-law, grandson and granddaughter-in-law. It had been a wonderful trip and a great Thanksgiving with family. No one would have guessed that in less than 3 weeks Bea would be gone.
I was blessed to be her teammate for 50 years, minus 4 months, but counting the year we knew each other and the fact that by Dec. we were making plans to marry in the spring, I will still consider I was blessed by Bea for 50 years. My Honey I called her, or I could say: My Honey Bee
If you are reading this, then you are part of Bea’s Legacy. I want to share the following with you, for you too, probably are feeling short-changed with the time you had to spend with her. I know she had students that asked her to fail them so they could stay in her classroom another year.
Following was the conclusion to Bea’s Memorial Service At the Birmingham First SDA Church by their pastor. The service was streamed live and there is a link on the Home page if you desire to see it.
50 years is not enough time when you love someone, and love spending time with them.
How long did you know Beatrice? If what I am seeing and hearing is any indication, however long it was, it was not long enough. I know it wasn’t for Bob, and He knew Bea for over 50 years. Married over 49 years.
Read John 11: 1-44. The story of Lazereth was read.
Obviously, the time spent with their brother Lazereth had not been long enough for Mary or Martha. How long is long enough if you truly love someone and love the time you spend with them?
Jesus choose to delay, to allow Lazereth to die and be dead 4 days to be certain all knew he was indeed dead. Allowed his sisters time to grieve the loss of their brother. Why?
Because if Jesus had been there, they are right, Lazereth would not have died, and we would have recorded a miracle of healing rather than that of Lazereth’s resurrection. But miracle of miracles, Lazereth did die and was raised to life and returned to his family that they might know that He, Jesus, was the resurrection and the life to all that believe in Him.
I know that Bea loved her family, and her very extended family. But she rests in the Lord. We all wish there were a way to have extended her stay here on earth with us. But from what I understand, if she had been connected up to monitors in the ER room, it would have made no difference. No extension possible, at least not on this earth. But I can assure you of one thing, she knew in whom she believed. She knew her Creator, her Savior, her friend. She had a relationship with Him and is showed. She spent a lifetime after meeting Him, trying to share with others, the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus. No, she wasn’t perfect, but she had perfect faith and trust in her God, her Creator.
No, I can’t bring her back to you. Only Jesus has the power to do that. But Tuesday night, when Beatrice put on her pajamas and prepared for bed, she had no idea that the next person she would be meeting was going to be her Savior, her Friend. You know who is going to be the next group of people she will be looking for? You got it. You, her family and friends. It you didn’t have enough time to spend with her here? Guess what. Eternity is just enough time to spend with someone you love. And she loved you each one.
1st Thessalonians 4: 15-17 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
What a reunion to look forward to.