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MILES, BEATRICE LETTER, 101
MILES, BEATRICE LETTER, 101, passed away peacefully on January 26 at Woodridge Nursing Home in Berlin, where she had been a resident for several months. Beatrice Laura Letter was born in Barre on July 14, 1911 to Anna Therrien and Eugene Letter. After elementary school in Williamstown and two years at Spaulding High School, she went to work as a secretary/bookkeeper for her father and brothers at Letter Granite Co. In 1940, Bea married John Roswell Miles, of Graniteville, who was active in the Vermont granite/stone industry. A daughter (Judith Ann) was born in 1942 and a son (John Stewart) in 1945. After the war years, during part of which Bea and John worked for Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut, the Miles family moved to Barre, and Bea lived there until moving to The Gardens at Williamstown Square in 2005. Bea and John were active members of the St. Monica Parish. For decades, Bea was a member and supporter of Catholic Daughters of America. In the mid-1950s, Bea and John established the John R. Miles Supply Co. Bea, as the company's vice president, office head and bookkeeper, was her husband's partner in the company's operations and management until John's death in 1980, when she assumed the reins. She teamed with John's right-hand man, Charlie Martin, who expanded operations and purchased the company, now operating as Miles Supply Inc., and serving the stone industry throughout the eastern U.S. Bea was also a dedicated member of the Barre Altrusa Club. Bea loved to travel. In addition to business trips, there were scores of visits throughout the U.S. and Canada over the years, voyages in the 1980s with the Rev. Reid Mayo's travel group, and trips to Europe with her family. In her mid-40s, Bea took up the game of golf, which became her fondest avocation for the next 50 years. She was a member of the Barre Country Club, and her golf clubs accompanied her on many trips to Cape Cod and Florida over the years. Bea also liked to bowl. She and her sister, Lorraine Clark, were members of Twin City Bowling's "Coffee and Donuts League." They christened their team "The Busy Bees" and bowled in the women's league for many years. Her other sport was cross-country skiing, which she started late in life but couldn't get enough of. Well into her 80s, she continued playing golf and card games with women decades younger than she was, who became her good friends. Bea was also a music lover and began taking piano lessons at age 45. For the next 50 years, she entertained her family daily with pieces ranging from Mozart to Gershwin. But family was her biggest passion of all. Although loving tradition, Bea was a modern woman in the way she combined her homemaking and business duties, finding time for a lot of grandparenting, as well as her many civic, church and sporting activities. For the last 40-plus years, she has been known in many circles simply as "Grammy Bea." The Gardens in Williamstown welcomed Bea as a resident in 2005; her daughter, Judy, moved there in 2008; and her younger sister, Lorraine, also moved there in 2011. Bea's remaining sibling, sister Jeannette, who turned 106 last Christmas, lives with her family in Chicago. Bea is survived by her daughter, Judith; her son, John, and wife, Thea; three grandchildren; 7 great-grandchildren; and five step-grandchildren and their families. She is also survived by her sisters, Jeannette and Lorraine; her sister-in-law, Margaret Foster; and dozens of nieces and nephews and their children. Bea's Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Saturday, June 8, 2013, at 10am in St. Monica Church in Barre.
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