IN REMEMBRANCE – Manhattan Beach matriarch Bettelu Beverly passes
by Mark McDermott When she peacefully departed life on April 11, Bettelu Beverly was just a week from her 98th birthday, an age at which, aside from her family, most of those who knew just who she was and what she’d meant to Manhattan Beach had already preceded her in death. But Councilman Steve Napolitano knew her, and at the end of last week’s meeting, he rose to adjourn the meeting in her honor. His voice broke as he began. “I’m sorry, I am choking up already,” he said. When Napolitano was first elected to the council at age 26 in the early 1990s, Elizabeth Louise “Bettelu” Beverly and her husband Robert Beverly were the kindly titans of Manhattan Beach. His renown as an assemblyman and state senator for 29 years and three-time mayor of Manhattan Beach was perhaps greater than hers, but locally, Bettelu was among the most respected and beloved figures in the community. “She was a true matriarch here in Manhattan Beach, whose reach went well beyond the Beverly family,” Napolitano said. Bettelu lived life avidly. Her days brimmed with things to do. She raised four children, cared for several generations of house pets, helped organized her husband’s campaigns, ran a gift shop…
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