Beverly Jean Davis

​Beverly Jean Davis was born in the small community of Compton, California to her parents Floyd and Lucille Davis in the year 1931. She has one brother who has survived her, Gary Davis. They remained close over the years, and were raised by good caring parents who worked hard to provide for them. The community of Compton was a warm, charming place to grow up in the mid 1930’s and 1940’s and was a place to establish a good foundation for families to live in. In Beverly’s adolescent years she lived through the Great Depression and World War II. This was a time period when families lived very meagerly and didn’t have a lot of money or food to go around.

Beverly always remembered and shared the stories of this time period that shook her world. She shared the story of being little and standing in a bread line with her father to receive food. Their house in the Richland Farms community was near the railroad tracks and Bev shared the stories of the homeless, (called hobos then), that would come up to the families backdoor looking for food. Lucille, Bev’s mom, who had a kind sole, would give them any food she could spare. Bev said that when WWII broke out she was about 10 years old and to that day, could still hear the air raid sounds in her mind…

Bev’s dad, Floyd owned and operated a Mobil Gas station across the street from the local elementary school that the kids attended. He also owned a little strip mall behind the station where Bev’s mom, Lucille Davis ran a diner called “Davis Grill”, which was considered to be the local malt shop. She was known for her baking of delicious pies. Beverly had the job of helping out at the diner after school. With mom running a business Bev was called upon to do her share of chores at home. She learned to be a task master of many things. Her mom depended on her to help keep things tidy at home.

When Bev was a teenager working at the malt shop she encountered young men coming in, after playing organized baseball games. Her father actually sponsored one of these teams called “The Davis Grill” baseball team. On this team was a young man named Louis Gill, who was known to be a good baseball player. Bev took a liking to this young man, and before long they were dating and fell in love. They were married in 1950 when Bev was almost 19 years old.

One of Bev’s favorite stories to share was how her swayed back horse named “Babe” would sometimes slip out of the yard and wander off. If Beverly was not around to get him, a family member would try to round Babe up and bring it home, with no luck. Bev would chuckle and share how her dad had to come to her school and get her out of class, to go catch her disobedient horse. No one could make Babe go home but her, she would say.

As time went on Bev and Louis bought their first home in Long Beach and their 3 children were born periodically in an expected, normal manner. The Gill family developed long lasting relationships with the neighborhood families, and other close family members moved into their neighborhood as well. Bev had her mom and dad a couple of doors down, and Louis’s mom and sister around the corner. It was a great set up, until Sheldon and Shawn got in trouble and would run down to grandma’s to get them out of trouble. Bev and Louis would have their traditional date night on Friday night and the kids would stay with grandma and grandpa.

In 1973 Bev and Louis with their boys, took a big leap and bought a new house, relocating to the upcoming Huntington Beach area where there were oil wells and beach wetlands. Beverly and Louis both had always loved the beach and desired to be near it, even if it meant starting again in an undeveloped area. Bev resided in this house for over 40 years making it a wonderful home for her family. She loved to entertain, host social gatherings, cook and bake pies and cookies.

The legacy that Bev has left us is the “love” that she has given and shared with her entire family and friends for years. She would have done anything to help any one of them and she displayed this regularly.

In the late 1990’s Bev and Louis visited one of the local Christian Churches confessing their faith in Jesus and asked to be baptized. We rest confident that Bev and Louis are eternally in heaven with our Lord and are free from pain and all suffering.