Beverley Jean (Greggerson) Kraus, formerly of Seattle and Bainbridge Island, died peacefully on February 22 following a lengthy experience with Alzheimer’s disease. Beverley was born December 4, 1934, in Spokane to Kenneth Virgil and Virginia Katherine (Weast) Greggerson.
Beverley lived a long and musical life. Her mother, Virginia, played organ and piano for silent movies as a teenager, and her father Ken played banjo and piano professionally as a young adult. Beverley continued this legacy as an accomplished flutist and pianist. Her family moved to Seattle in the early ‘40s; first to Magnolia Bluff and then to the Matthews Beach Park area in 1946. She and her parents loved to recount their neighborhood gatherings (aka loud parties), which sometimes included rolling a piano onto the patio and playing late into the night—no one complained because everyone was invited.
A 1953 graduate of Roosevelt High School, Beverley was a member of Seattle’s All-City Band, school Band President, and an honors student. After graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in Music, she moved to California, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Stanford University. She married William (Vim) Bryant, and they had two children, William (Bill) and Kristin. She also helped to raise Vim’s daughter, Shirley (Bryant) Orme.
In California, Beverley also was a counselor at Beverly Hills High School and was active in many civic organizations, including public television station KCET, PTAs, and at least one local orchestra, playing flute and piccolo. She dedicated most of her time to raising her two children. In 1976 the family moved from California to Bend, Oregon, where she and her husband continued to be active in the community, especially in Rotary and Bend’s school board. Notably, during this period she worked diligently as a proponent for adding comprehensive sex education to school curriculums.
While still in Bend, Beverley was married to Howard G. Kraus for several years and grew close to Howard’s children, Bob Kraus and Cathy Kraus. Later in life, she became attached to Bainbridge Island, where she alternately lived on NE Foster Road and on her boat, Orpheus, and traveled across the waters, even serving as a host on a remote island. For much of this time, she had her sweet little dog, Applejack, who had his own life vest (happily used only once). Beverley was also a lifelong lover of nature and traveled extensively, hiking on a glacier in Chile, sailing with Elder Hostel (Roads Scholar) around Ireland and New Zealand, and exploring Australia, Antarctica, Greenland, Canada and Europe as well as skiing several times a year in the US and Canada.
Beverley was dedicated to helping people and the environment through organizations such as Island Volunteer Caregivers on Bainbridge, NPR, PEO, The Nature Conservancy and The Sierra Club.
The information above does not begin to encapsulate Beverley’s person — her dedication to her children and her community, her love for her granddaughters Caroline Margaret Bryant and Phoebe Katherine Bryant, and her passion for travel and adventure. She always made sure her kids had a glass of water by their beds and swore that she really liked burnt toast. She would often wake up her kids with a silly song and be deliberately obnoxious with her cheerfulness when they just wanted to be sulky teens. Beverley’s impact on her family’s world, on her friends’ lives and community was through thousands of small and integral kindnesses. She added certainty to the fabric of an uncertain world.
Beverley is survived by her children and grandchildren. She is and will always be missed tremendously by all who knew her.
Donations in Beverley’s memory may be made to Island Volunteer Caregivers (www.ivcbainbridge.org) or to the Nature Conservancy of Washington, Idaho, or Oregon (select state chapter at https://www.nature.org/en-us/).
