It is with broken but loving hearts that we tell you that Lisa Yvonne Beamer, beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away gently and peacefully in her home on July 29, 2024, with her husband Bob and their children, Ian and Alex, with her. Lisa spent every minute of her last week surrounded by loving friends and family. Ian and Alex got to spend hours with their beloved mom Friday, Saturday, and Sunday while she was in her bed, holding her hand, talking to her, and watching Harry Potter movies and Dodgers games. Lisa was 65 years old (although she never looked it!) and was born in Torrance, California, to Doug and Yvonne Cox on January 31, 1959.
Lisa and her family lived in Manhattan Beach, California, until they moved to Buena Park when Lisa was in high school. In school, she played softball and apparently had a wicked pitch. She liked playing catcher later in her 30s. Lisa was an excellent swimmer in her youth and teens and was on swim teams, but she gave that up after a while – the beach was nearby and what beach girl wants to be in a swimming pool? Lisa had lots of friends and loved going to the beach and going to football games at school on Friday nights (which is a bit surprising – Lisa was not a football fan at all, although she was trying to learn the game a bit over the last couple of years!).
Lisa moved to Ventura, California in 1989, where she found a job working as a receptionist for an engineering firm where Bob was working. Bob fell head over heels almost right away, and they became close friends throughout that year. Bob eventually got up the courage to ask Lisa out, and they had their first date on December 13, 1989. They were inseparable ever after.
Bob and Lisa were married in Ventura on September 12, 1992. Lisa was a beautiful, wonderful, thoughtful, caring, fun and funny, loving wife who would do anything for her husband and family and friends, and Lisa was always Bob’s best friend in addition to being his beloved, devoted wife. They loved being together and having fun together, and they spent nearly 32 years loving and laughing together. Lisa gave birth to two amazing sons: Ian, who was born on January 18, 1996, and Alex, who was born on August 27, 1998.
Ian and Alex were blessed: Lisa was a stay at home mom until Alex was a junior in high school. She loves them unreservedly with all her heart and soul, and she would do anything for them. Lisa was always there for Ian and Alex, and she was a full-time volunteer at their preschool, elementary and middle and high schools, cub scouts, little league (she loved keeping score!), church, everywhere. Ian and Alex got their mom’s love of life, love of people, optimistic attitude, sense of humor, and gentle caring nature.
Lisa loved cooking and loved to prepare delicious meals for her family. She studied culinary arts at Oxnard College early in their marriage. Bob, Ian, and Alex were spoiled by her wonderful cooking, as Bob's belly can attest. She loved making huge, wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for their family. Lisa was a foodie who always enjoyed finding delicious dishes at restaurants all over the place during her family’s travels together, but Lisa would not order crabcakes at a restaurant because they could not compare to her own (and Bob especially loved Lisa's crabcakes Benedict the morning after). She would order and enjoy scallops, but they were never as good as the scallops she fixed at home. When Bob and Lisa spent a few weeks in New England in the fall of 2021, Lisa made it a personal goal to have a lobster roll a day. She very nearly succeeded! Lisa loved to cook meals for people who were sick or who needed taken care of, and she never wanted anyone to go hungry. She was a die-hard Dodgers fan and a not-so-secret nerd: she loved Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings (which she insisted we watch every Friday after Thanksgiving – the extended editions), Harry Potter books and movies, and even superhero movies. Lisa especially loved to play games with her family and friends, and she put up with all of Bob's many quirks, although often with a not-so-hidden eye roll.
Lisa had lots of close friends going back to when Ian and Alex were born, when Lisa was in mom's club with other moms and their kids, and even going back to friends she and Bob made through work (lots of softball, volleyball, and happy hours!) before they were dating. She remained in close contact with most of these friends (and their spouses and kids), getting together with them, having meals with them, playing bunco with them, and laughing with them, and many of them came to visit Lisa and love on her over the last few weeks of her life. She was truly blessed and truly loved.
Lisa only ever thought of others; she never really thought about herself. She only wanted for her loved ones and others to be happy; she had absolutely zero interest in material things for herself. Bob likes to say that Lisa would go into Target and come out with two or three new friends. She loved and cared for everyone and her loving personality shone brightly, and even strangers recognized it.
On the drive back from taking Ian to college in South Dakota in 2014, Lisa got a phone call from a good friend who she had volunteered with at Orchard Community Church in Ventura, where our family had been members for nearly 20 years. The church offered her a job working in the office, and Lisa worked there from 2014 until her retirement last January, 2024. Lisa loved her job, and loved going to “work” every day to be with some wonderful women who became some of her closest friends. Her gift of hospitality, her faith, and her love for her neighbors made her a perfect fit for the job.
Even though Lisa had cancer in her bile duct which spread to her liver and other parts of her beautiful body, she never ever complained or got sad or depressed. When she was in the hospital in June, the palliative care team there asked Lisa how sad or depressed she was on a scale of 0 to 10, and she immediately said “0.” She was always optimistic and happy and loving life, and no illness, not even a horrible aggressive cancer like cholangiocarcinoma, could bring her down, dampen her spirit, or steal her always-present beautiful smile.
Lisa’s dad Doug and her mom Yvonne (Vonnie) are with Lisa in heaven, but most of her extended family are still with us, including her husband Bob and sons Ian and Alex; father-in-law Bob Beamer and his wife Nancy; mother-in-law Rosemary Willis; Lisa’s sister Glenda Turnage and her husband Ray and their grown children Doug, Desaray, and Rebecca and their families; sister Karen; sister-in-law Leah Olson and her husband Tim and their grown children Kaley Riffey (and her husband Tyler and their son Forest), Coby, and Crosby; sister-in-law Kristin Viscaino and her grown children Kati Hauser (and her husband Richie) and Nathan (and his wife Elizabeth); Lisa’s beloved Auntie Maxine and many cousins and their families; her family’s dog Leo (the Thunder Bear); and more best friends than she could count. Lisa was Auntie Lisa, Queen of All She Surveys, to her sweet nieces. Lisa was as blessed to have so many loving friends and family as she was a blessing to them.
Friends and family are invited to join us for a memorial service/celebration of life for Lisa at Orchard Community Church in Ventura at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 7th, with time afterwards to share some food and refreshments and share stories and memories about Lisa.
Over the last couple of years, Lisa and her family got a lot of support and education from the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. If you would like to make a donation to their wonderful cause, trying to help end this terrible disease and to support people who have it, you can find them at https://cholangiocarcinoma.org/donate/. Lisa also admired the good work that World Central Kitchen (www.wck.org) is doing (including in Ventura delivering over 35,000 meals during the Thomas fire), and she enjoyed supporting them. We are certain that Lisa would be happy with prayers for or donations to any cause that’s in your heart.
We love you and we miss you terribly. You are the light.
Proverbs 31
An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
...
She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
...
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.