d. Aug. 28, 2024
Beverly Ann (Thalin) Powell, 86, Fish Creek, born in Northfield Illinois, passed away peacefully on Aug. 28, 2024 peacefully at home with family after a long struggle with dementia and several other health issues.
She may have been small in stature but more than made up for it in character, kindness, and the will and determination of a warrior.
She was the eldest of 8 and preceded in death by her husband Gregg, her parents – William A. and Evelyn S. Thalin, sister Lynn DiPaolo, and 2 of her oldest brothers Stephen and Gregory Thalin. She was survived by her children Ginny (Virginia) Sowinski (Paul) and Wizzie (Elizabeth) Powell (Marshall Hill), un-daughter Beth Holden Rondello (Pete), and her brothers Jeffrey (Lisa), Bryan (Jenifer), John (Katie) Thalin, and Charles (Kim) Orth, and grandchildren Alex Sowinski (Jennifer Evenson), Rachel Sowinski (Rory MacMillan), Sidney and Christopher Hayashi and great grandchildren Sowin MacMillan, Alec and Ethan Evenson, and Annika Hill.
If you happened to look up the word “nurturing” in the dictionary, you’d find her photo. She loved caring for children. From her younger siblings, her own children and grandchildren, as well as her chosen “un-children” and “un-grandchildren”. She always managed to find a way to encourage and support each and every one of them to explore their interests and individuality with an unwavering foundation of love and acceptance.
That’s why she did so well as the front of house when she, her husband Gregg, and their daughters Ginny and Wizzie (Elizabeth) opened Powell’s Country Inn in Fish Creek. Family meant the world to her, all those by blood or by choice, children to elders, all mattered and all filled her heart!
She also sang every chance she got from childhood on, even later studying opera when her children started school. She studied art as a young woman, entering her work into competitions, later going on to college to pursue her degree in art. Home life was filled with art projects, music, and song. She would constantly hum while creating anything, even dinner.
Bev loved travel and adventure, always open to trying something new like making the cut in a Chicago Ice Follies audition, to even flying a plane and going for her pilot’s license. Family and their needs came first in her book, pursuing her passions and trying new things second. We’re certain she’s now on the grandest of all adventures with her High School sweetheart and loving husband of 59 years as they spend this next chapter together in spirit.
