Beverly Brewster Vieau, a longtime Pacific Palisades resident, passed away on Jan. 28.
Beverly’s parents, Eleanor and John Brewster, moved to California from Missouri, and John established Brewster’s Food Mart on Montana Avenue and 9th Street in Santa Monica. Beverly was born in 1926 and raised in Santa Monica.
As a young girl, Beverly enjoyed playing the piano and giving recitals. She kept playing piano while a student at Santa Monica High School and majored in music at UCLA. Her activities at UCLA included Alpha Chi Omega sorority and class treasurer.
While in college, Beverly met her future husband, Navy pilot Harold Vieau, on a blind date. The Minneapolis native was stationed in San Diego, and a friend from Santa Monica invited him up for the weekend. While at the Saturday USO dance, Hal asked Beverly if she knew a Catholic church. She said she’d take him to Saint Monica’s for the 10 a.m. mass the next day.
Hal remembers, “I waited for her, then it was 10:15, 10:30, 10:45 and she finally drives up. I jump in the car and we go to church. She pointed to where we could sit (behind a pillar). We arrived for the final blessing. I turned to her and said, ‘Is this the way you go to church?’”
Upon Hal’s return from active duty in the Pacific one year later in 1945, they were married and moved to Denver for a short period while he attended St. Regis College. They moved back to California and Pacific Palisades to a duplex on Northfield in 1947. They bought on house on Swarthmore five years later, and in 1963 moved to Whitfield, with its spectacular view of the entire length of Via de la Paz stretching to the Via de las Olas bluffs and the ocean beyond.
Beverly and Hal were married for 71 years, and it was a remarkable love affair. Beverly was recognized as a caring, thoughtful person to all who knew her. She
also possessed considerable inner strength, having battled polio as a young mother of two in the early 1950s. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in midlife, winning that battle. In her later years, after a heart attack, she was given a pacemaker. Most people never knew about her physical struggles and she never complained nor slowed down.
She was involved in the Palisades community with the American Legion Auxiliary, Corpus Christi Parish, Santa Monica High School Alumni Association and the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. One of Beverly’s favorite things was teaching piano and she had a loyal legion of young pianists from the Palisades who were her pupils.
She leaves behind her dear husband, Hal; her three children, Jerry, Jan and Joan; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A funeral mass was celebrated at Corpus Christi Church on Feb. 6.
Family and friends will miss Beverly. “We love you and God bless.
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