ROSA  NOEL  ROTH  BEVERLEY
August 28, 1940 - June 8, 2026

Rosy Roth Beverley died June 8 at Pruitt Health Home, Elkin, NC, after an extended illness.

She is survived by her daughter Caroline Noel Beverley, and husband Brian Hammesfahr of Elkin; her son John Gray Beverley, III, of Charlottesville, VA,  and wife Isha, their children Chloe, Galo, Nico and Sophie ; her brother Tom Roth of Winston Salem; brother William Roth of Elkin, and many much cherished nieces and nephews.

Rosa Noel Roth was born in Winston Salem just 2 weeks after the historical, highest flood ever recorded in her hometown of Elkin. Her parents were Thomas Mosser Roth  and wife Carolyn Noel Cawthon Roth (later Parker).

She graduated as a boarder in 1957 from Salem Academy in Winston Salem and enrolled at Mt. Vernon Junior College in Washington, DC, where she became class president. However, she and her widowed mother conspired to trade in her 2nd year at Mt. Vernon for an educational year living in Rome and then traveling 12,000 miles across Europe. It was a touchstone experience for Rosy.

Upon returning to the US, Rosy moved to New York with lifelong friend Ross Francis (nee Johnson). They found careers, and lived the bachelorette lifestyle akin to the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" era, complete with Rosy's battered yellow 1953 MG convertible which they kept parked on the streets of Manhattan.

Rosy had long term employment working for nine years for J. & W. Seligman, an old line Wall Street financial company.

On June 3, 1967 Rosy and John Gray Beverley, Jr., were married at Christ Episcopal Church, Georgetown, in Washington DC. They brought up their children in New York.  The family spent many weekends  in Roxbury CT, where they were decades-long tenants of a barn property on the compound owned by Rose and William Styron, the acclaimed writers.  They  joined a circle which included several authors and playwrights.

Summer vacations included yearly stays in Roaring Gap, NC as well as Roxbury.

In their New York City apartment they hosted weekly poker nights where some of the regulars hailed from the Broadway show community. Rosy was regularly the night's big winner, due to her very sharp card-sense and to being the only non-drinker in the group.

In 1990 Rosy and Gray separated, with Rosy moving to Wilmington, NC. She developed an artistic career there creating hand painted oil- colored photographs, using black-and-white pictures she took, developed, and printed on archival papers and then colored directly on the paper.

By 1994 Rosy moved permanently back to Elkin, spurred to help out with illness in the family.

She carried on making artwork in her custom studio lodged in their home's former carriage house. She continued photography, but also started  making sculptures using wooden spoons, popsicle sticks, clothespins, mousetraps, paint brushes, and small tree branches scavenged from the woods. All were decorated with bold color and imagination.

Her vivid persona was defined by a dry, sly, wry wit, often coming unexpectedly, but never cruel.

She gravitated to other people, making close friends from all walks of  life; she was a real "people person." She loved not only people but gave her heart to pampering a long line of Jack Russell terriers.

Rosy generously devoted herself for more than a decade to the "Feed the Elderly" meals on wheels program, and she was a dedicated mainstay of the Yadkin Valley Craft Guild, the Foothills Arts Council, and, especially, the Galloway Memorial Episcopal Church.

She was a long term member of Roaring Gap Club (NC) and Rockaway Hunting Club (NY).

A memorial service will be held at Galloway Memorial Church, 308 W. Main St., Elkin, at 2pm on Saturday, June 13. A reception will follow at Rosy's studio, behind 122 Terrace Avenue.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be sent to the Foothills Arts Council, PO Box 24, Elkin, NC 28621 or to The Ark, PO Box 102,

Elkin, NC 28621.

John Kennedy, Funeral Director is assisting the Beverley family with funeral arrangements.