Beverly Benson Leoni died peacefully on April 12, 2014 at the Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen, N.H.

Born and raised in Providence, R.I., Bev graduated from the Bouvé Boston School of Physical Education. In the 1950s, Bev and her husband Leon Leoni built a Techbuilt house in Pittsfield, Mass., where Bev worked as a physical therapist and raised her sons, Chuck and Kirk. After Lee died unexpectedly in 1960, Beverly assisted with alumni relations at Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield and later became director of development at Darrow School in New Lebanon, N.Y. The 1972 yearbook was dedicated to her by the senior class.

She later lived in Lenox, Mass., Williamstown, Mass., Weare, N.H., South Harrow, United Kingdom, and Concord, N.H. For decades, she spent summers on Juniper Point in her beloved Boothbay Harbor.

She loved to travel and visit friends and family in far-off places. Beverly enjoyed "a good argument" in which she would always play the devil's advocate. She liked coffee and buttered toast at dawn, her eggs "like cement," homemade chocolate sauce over peppermint stick ice cream, and a half-glass of "the cheapest" rosè wine.

Beverly was predeceased by her husband Leon Charles Leoni, her younger sister Carolyn Cranor, and her parents Edward and Alva Benson.

She is survived by her son, Kirk Leoni and his wife Judy of Weare, N.H.; her son, Chuck Leoni and his wife Susan Shepard of San Francisco, Calif.; and her grandchildren, Ben Leoni, Meredith Leoni and Eliza Leoni.

Beverly's ashes will rest with Leon at the Pittsfield Cemetery in Pittsfield, Mass.