Beatty, Sylvie R.
Sylvie Beatty, passed away at home on Sunday, January 21, 2007. She was surrounded by her children, Carol and Stephen Beatty, and dear friend, Melodie Givens.
Born November 15, 1919 in Focsani, Romania, she moved with her family to France in the early 1920’s. She was educated at convent schools in Paris and Bognor Regis, England. During World War II she was a courageous member of the French Resistance and risked her life to forge and deliver documents to French Jews and to train agents of the Allied Forces. In 1944 she met 1st Lieutenant Silas Robert (Bob) Beatty. They married in Paris and she returned with him to the United States.
Stateside they began a family, and she also worked part time as a social worker. The Beattys moved from New York to Virginia in 1960. She worked as a laboratory technician at Radford Hospital. She started a long and happy association with Virginia Tech in 1968. She was a dynamic member of the laboratories of Drs. Bruce Andersen, Joseph Fontenot, and Roddy Young.
Mrs. Beatty retired from Tech in 1986. While Mrs. Beatty became a naturalized citizen and a patriotic American, she never forgot her European roots, nor what it was like to be the newcomer. For decades she was the unofficial doyenne of the international community in Blacksburg. She was known for her dinner parties, wonderful culinary skills, famous shortbread, and for the assistance she gave to newly arrived foreign scholars and graduate students.
She was a resident of Terrace View Apartments for 38 years. Terrace View Staff treated her as family and showed her many kindnesses. She was preceded in death by her parents and her uncles Leo, Marcel, and Simone. In addition to her children, Dr. Carol Beatty of Davis, California and Mr. Stephen Beatty of Blacksburg, she is survived by many, many friends.
As per her wishes, there will be no funeral services. The family suggests that memorials be made to the American Cancer Society or your local animal shelter. Arrangements by McCoy Funeral Home.
March 5, 2016 @ 11:31 pm
My mother and your mother Sylvie were best friends on rue de Patay. I have a letter written to my mother Simone Morali May 18, 1943 and many photographs of our mothers together. If you are in Paris 18 April 2016 2:30 Memorial de la Shoah, there will be a celebration honoring Simone’s mother as a Righteous Among the Nations. Please feel welcome to join us if you are in Paris, or visit the Alles des Justes next to the Memorial de la Shoah.
March 5, 2016 @ 11:33 pm
Céline Morali started saving lives in May, 1940 and she continued through September, 1942. In all, approximately 300 Jewish refugees and prisoners of war escaping Nazi Germany made their way to her hardware store, Quinquaillerie ROMO, 113 rue de Patay in Paris. In small groups they came, hiding either below the store in the basement or above it in the family living quarters. Her teenage daughter, Simone, practiced the piano to help mask the sound of hidden refugees. After a few days those in hiding would leave in a truck driven by Alfred Fuhrman. They were spirited over the border at Chalon-sûr-Saône to hiding places in the southern Zone.
Among those saved was the family of Emile Zenatti: son Claude, daughter Arlette, wife Lucie, and Lucie’s sister Marietta Bloch. Arlette and Claude Zenatti were 11 and 13 years old at liberation. It was their testimony that resulted in Céline Morali posthumously receiving Yad Vashem’s highest honor, Righteous Among the Nations, on June 29, 2015. The award ceremony will take place 2:30 pm Monday April 18 at the Memorial de la Shoah–17, rue Geoffroy L’Asnier, Paris. The public is invited.
March 5, 2016 @ 11:43 pm
I am truly sorry I never had the opportunity to meet Madame Beatty. Dr. Emile Zenatti was a war buddy of Uncle Leo and it is through Sylvie that Leo and Emil made their escape via the Morali reseau to the alps crossing the demarcation line at Chalon-sur-Saome. I even have wedding pictures of your parents wedding, photos of Uncle Leo with my Aunt Eva Kritzer and Grandmere Goldfarb when they were visiting in NYC. We are distant cousins via my grandfather Gerschon “George” Kritzer via family in Rumania. My mother met my father at Uncle Leo’s apartment Sept. 1944 just after the Liberation of Paris. Simone was also member of FFI, 13eme arrondissement.