Francis Louis Beardsley (1915 - 2012)

Born 11 Sep 1915 in Marin County, California

Ancestors

Husband of Frances Louise (Albrecht) Beardsley — married 31 Mar 1943 (to 21 Nov 1960) in Seattle, King, Washington, United States

Husband of Helen Eileen (Brandmeir) Beardsley — married 9 Sep 1961 (to 26 Apr 2000) in Carmel, California

Died 11 Dec 2012 at age 97 in Santa Rosa, California, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Nick Dann [send private message]

Francis Louis Beardsley is Notable.

Biography

Francis Louis Beardsley is a descendant of the immigrants William Beardsley and Mary Harvie.

Chief Warrant Officer Beardsley, born Francis Beardsley in 1915, was the child of Mary Grennen and Charles Beardsley. Francis passed away in 2012. ^[1]

Francis, or Frank, Beardsley was born 11 Sep 1915 in Marin County, California to Charles Henry and Mary Ellen (Grennan) Beardsley. Frank was one of twelve children. Frank married Frances Albrecht, and they had ten children: Michael Francis, Charles Henry (Rusty), Gregory Paul, Rosemary Ann, Louise Antoinette, Mary Cecilia, Susan Ellen (Susie), Veronica Marion, Germaine Marie, and Joan Frances. His wife, Frances, died shortly after Joan’s birth.

Meanwhile, Helen Eileen Brandmeir, the ninth in a family of ten children in Seattle, Washington was born 5 April 1930. She grew up in Seattle where she trained to be a nurse at Providence Hospital. At age 19 Helen married Navy man Richard (Dick) Dale North on 30 June 1949.

Helen and Dick North had eight children: Colleen, Janette, Nicholas, Tom, Jean, Phillip, Gerald and Teresa Rose.

Helen was six months pregnant with the eighth child, Teresa Rose, when North, by now an officer and navigator in an A-3 squadron at NAS Whidbey Island, died in a crash of his aircraft on 7 June 1960.

In early 1961 Helen moved to San Leandro, California where the principal of the parochial school where her children were registered, Sister Mary Eleanor, mentioned her recently widowed brother Francis (Frank) Beardsley, a Navy Warrant Officer. Frank had 10 children of his own. Frank and Helen began corresponding and had their first date on the eve of Mother's Day, 13 May 1961. The whirlwind courtship ended up in marriage less than four months later.

Helen North married Frank Beardsley on 9 September 1961 in Carmel, California. She and her 8 children moved in with Frank and his 10 children. Frank's house was enlarged to 5,800 square feet in size, which included 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and 3 living rooms. The family immediately gained national press attention. The couple soon sold the movie rights of their story to Desilu Studios.

On 14 July 1962 Frank and Helen's first child together, Joseph John, was born. In the spring of 1963 Helen legally adopted Frank's 10 children and Frank adopted Helen's 8 children in the largest mass adoption in California history. The couple's 20th child, named Helen Monica was born on 19 April 1964.

Frank and Helen appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson soon after their wedding. The family then appeared in west coast bread commercials. Helen received the National Campfire Girls Mother of the Year award in 1963. In 1965 Helen wrote the book "Who Gets the Drumstick" recounting her story as a Navy wife and mother. In April 1968, the movie "Yours, Mine and Ours" was released staring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, loosely based on Frank and Helen's story,.

The family was featured in Life magazine.Young & Rubicam put the family in a commercial for the Langendorf Bread Company^[2]. Filming in their home took 12 days.

In 1968 Frank retired from the Navy and, with Helen, they opened “Ye Ol' Beardsley Donut Shoppe”, which later expanded into three locations. In 1973 the couple sold the stores and Helen returned to the medical field working at Carmel Community Hospital. The couple then moved to Fresno in 1977 where Helen worked at St Agnes Medical Center as a cardiovascular technician.

Frank and Helen Beardsley retired to the Santa Rosa, California area in the mid 1980s. Soon after obtaining her certificate in medical transcribing, Helen began a long battle with a rare form of Parkinson disease which eventually took her life on 26 April 2000. Frank remarried, in late 2000, Dorothy Cushman. They resided in Sonoma County, California.

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Sources

• Beardsley Genealogy: The Family of William Beardsley, One of the First Settlers of Connecticut. Compiled and edited by Nellie Beardsley Holt and Charles Eleazer Holt. Published at West Hartford, Connecticut, 1951. Francis is the son of Charles H. Beardsley, Holt Record #1382, Pg. 495. ^[3]
• The Real Yours, Mine and Ours Family, compiled by Rebecca Webb, 2010. ^[4]
• 1920 US Census: San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA, 7 Jan 1920, Enumeration District 341, Sheet 6B^[5]
• 1930 US Census: San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA, 3 Apr 1930, Enumeration District 181, Sheet 4A^[6]

See also:

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Footnotes

1. ↑ Information from Beardsley researcher Nick Dann, 31 Jan 2015.
2. ↑ Duncan Beardsley of California recalls: I came across the Francis Beardsley comment that Young & Rubicam made them famous with advertisements for Langendorf bread. Would you believe that I worked at Y&R at the time and was very involved with that campaign though at a very lowly level. Y&R was my first job. Duncan Beardsley and Francis L. Beardsley are 7th cousins, once removed. [NFD]
3. ↑ Holt Record # 1382.
4. ↑ The Real Yours, Mine and Ours Family
5. ↑ Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Roll: T625_142; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 341; Image: 729
6. ↑ Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls; Roll: 201; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0181; Image: 297.0; FHL microfilm: 2339936