Lynne Beecroft

Lynne Beecroft December 12, 1946 – November 8, 2024

A Woman of Paper

A pathetic attempt at her obituary, written by her oldest niece Kristina Lowe

Lynne Beecroft was born Lynne Bode, in Queens New York in 1946, to her father Phillip Bode and his wife and her mother, Lucille. Lynne was the oldest of three girls, her two younger sisters Barbara (Bode) Percoskie and Joanne (Bode) Safarik, both survived her, as did her older brother Phillip Bode. I suppose her very birth involved the first piece of paper in her life. Perhaps it led to her lifelong relationship with the material, on a few occasions it was volatile, more often it was a love, and it remained with her to the end of her days.

Lynne, as long that I had the privilege of knowing her, was an amazing woman. She worked in Manhattan, New York, in the accounting section of some insurance company I have long since forgotten, but I am fairly certain that company has an entire building in their name, or at least it did. This was the 1970s, and a woman achieving that level of a profession was nothing to shirk at. I remember her dressed in blouses and trousers, in the later years; before that it was skirted business suits. Accounting back then, was done in ledgers. The entries were handwritten, on columnar pads, and withdrawals and deposits were written in different colored ink. So now you understand where being in the ‘red’, and being in the ‘black’, came from. And you see this secondary part of ‘paper’.

Now the Lynne I knew? She had her own apartment that she lived in alone, another rare feat for a woman in the 1970s, she paid her own bills, maintained her professional life, had a personal life, and changed the oil in her very cool Celica Sport. She still managed to round up nine cousins and take them solo to Great Adventure…which later became Six Flags, in New Jersey. Thirty years later I took nine kids to the Phoenix Zoo by myself and boy did I get a whole new appreciation for what she did THAT day at Great Adventure! And two of those kids I took to the zoo were MINE! I tipped my hat to Lynne after that day. This was a single woman who had no children of her own, and she DARED this feat! Well done! None of us died or even got injured, Hell none of us so much as got lost, even though half of us would be on completely different rides in a vast amusement park.

On this trip, there was a roller coaster called Rolling Thunder, and I was a short kid, and was about ½ inch too short to make ‘the cut’. My head didn’t quite reach the bottom of the sign where it said…you must be this tall to ride this ride. I was crushed. Aunt Lynne patted my shoulder, winked, and said, “C’mon.” I started to argue saying the guy at the end of the line wouldn’t let me on, and she assured me that he would. We get to the end of the line, and I am just dreading being told, no, you aren’t tall enough. They had the same height measuring sign at the end of the line, which was 45 minutes long by the way. I approached the measuring sign, and Lynne Bode, as she was called at this time, slipped up close behind me and stuck her toes under my heels. Guess who got on Rolling Thunder?!? Sure, looking back I might have been thrown off the ride and died, but even now I would rather have risked that instead of not being allowed to at least? TRY.

Modern litigation and liabilities are what they are, and I think maybe we lost something when they arrived. Aunt Lynne knew, even then, you must risk a little to know how to soar. Or

crash, which thankfully I did not, and unfortunately that ride has made me a rabid roller coaster fan to this day. Or more likely? Fortunately. Great Adventure back then? Issued paper admission tickets. So again, a woman of paper.

Now Lynne Bode was a READER. She tore through books, soaking in every scene and scent the author described, and she could almost quote word for word what a certain character said in whatever book at whatever part of the story. I think I was 8 when she gave me the boxed set of J.R.R Tolkien’s works, you know them now as the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. That same year, there was the Scholastic Book fair at my school in the late fall, and Watership Down was there. A thick book, especially to a young girl like me, but I wanted to read it. I think it was maybe? $3.85, a lot of money for a paperback in the late 70s. Oddly enough, Aunt Lynne came to visit us Ringwood, NJ that weekend, and we always talked about books. I expressed my disappointment at not being able to purchase it, and she nodded and explained well yes, that is a lot of money for one book. I knew it was and told her I would try to borrow it from the library. Fast forward to Christmas, about a month and a half later. The wrapping paper was red, with gold star outlines on it, I can’t believe I remember this, and my gift, from Aunt Lynne, was a brand-new copy of Watership Down. So, there’s a few more paper things for ya, the book, and the fact that I remember the wrapping paper.

My younger cousins, or older ones that didn’t spend as much time with Lynne (Bode) Beecroft, probably don’t know any part of this side of her. Later in life, Lynne met and married a man named Ken Beecroft, who made sure she lived like a princess. They had decades together and were happy, laughed a lot and anybody who ever heard Lynne laugh could pick it out of a jam-packed airport and you would find yourself laughing even before you laid eyes on her; it was that contagious and just sheer joy. Some cousins my age, or a bit older, will remember this. I used to get the treat of spending a weekend every now and then with Aunt Lynne in her apartment on Long Island, with the fish net on the wall and the shells she had collected from various day trips to the beach or vacations hung in that net. Her neighbors had a backyard garden, which I thought was WAY cool, and at night I could hear the train horn as it went up and down the island. Aunt Lynne opened her home to all of us, so much so that one cousin went and lived with her, and my weekend visits had to end because there was no room anymore…. THANKS JIMMY! I’m kidding, but not.

Lynne Beecroft was a woman who was a mighty force, once upon a time. I think that also is fitting, in her being a woman of paper. Every great story starts with…. Once Upon a Time, except in this case it was true.

So, while Lynne Beecroft’s story may have started with a birth certificate, a piece of paper proving she now existed, and it ended with a death certificate, a different piece of paper stating that she no longer exists? I beg to differ.

Lynne (Bode) Beecroft existed. And BOY, did she LIVE! Even on pages not written.

In lieu of flowers or a tree planting, the family wishes that a book be donated to your local library in Lynne's name