Janet Beverly Renn

Janet Beverly (Morris) Renn, of Edinboro, known as Beverly to family and friends, was born in Chester County, PA, near the Mason-Dixon Line, on November 16, 1936. She was the older daughter of the late Clyde J. Morris and Mae Roberts Morris, who owned and operated a classic dairy farm near the village of Barnsley. Beginning at an early age, Beverly actively participated in farm chores and worked alongside her father in the fields and in the dairy barn. The family also had a labor-intensive truck garden and a poultry business, all of which gave Beverly the strong work ethic she possessed throughout her life.

Beverly was proud of her Quaker ancestry and was active at Oxford Friends Meeting, Chester County, PA in her early years. Genealogy was her lifelong passion. She was able to trace numerous direct ancestral lines in her family to Quakers who arrived at the port of Philadelphia from England and Wales in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

Beverly and her sister, Nina, walked to an old time country school in Barnsley their first eight years in public school, and they both gave the valedictory address there the respective years they graduated. Beverly‘s high school years were spent at Oxford Area High School. For the next two years, Beverly attended Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, PA.  Beginning in early childhood, Beverly was determined to become an R.N.  After her Elizabethtown College years, she continued school in Philadelphia and completed the diploma program in nursing at Jefferson Medical College Hospital School of Nursing in 1959.  After passing nursing board examinations, Beverly was awarded a bachelor's degree in nursing from Elizabethtown College and was one of the first RNs in the region to have a college degree in nursing.

While in Philadelphia, Beverly met her future husband, Donald James Renn. They were married in 1960, and on April 9, 2022, Beverly and Jim celebrated their sixty-second wedding anniversary. Married life began in New Jersey where Jim was stationed at Ft. Dix during the Cold War escalation. Following an "early out" from the military, Jim was accepted into graduate school at Bucknell University, and their first two children were born there while Beverly worked at the hospital in Lewisburg, PA. High school teaching in Pawling, New York, came next for her husband while Beverly worked at nearby Danbury Hospital in Connecticut. Mid January, 1965, they relocated to Edinboro, PA, where Jim began his lengthy career teaching college chemistry. Their third child was born in 1969.

Beverly‘s nursing career, always in the hospital setting, lasted continuously for 40 years.  She was proud of the fact that she was a generalist in the nursing profession and not a specialist. It was said she was equally as strong in one specialty as in each of the others. The last 25 years of her nursing career were spent at Doctors Osteopathic Hospital (later known as Metro Health center), Erie, PA, working as a nursing supervisor. She also worked at Meadville City Hospital and Union City Hospital, as well as the hospital in Elkton, Maryland, earlier in her career. Beverly was known for her remarkable memory, her compassionate mentoring, and her stellar professionalism.

Throughout her life, Beverly played the piano and taught her children, grandchildren, and neighbors to play. In later years, she served as substitute pianist at Edinboro Presbyterian Church where she was an active member, and for 40 years she was a member of the handbell choir in the same church. She also enjoyed playing the piano for church services at Edinboro Manor for several years. She was a longtime member of Edinboro Book Review Club, in continuous existence since 1930, and was a more recent member of the Edinboro Writers Club. She was a staunch Republican and had worked the polls in Washington Township. At home, she loved landscaping the acreage surrounding her house and enjoyed the collection of trees and flowering shrubs she planted during the over 50 years residing on their property on Route 6N. She was an inveterate birdwatcher and taught herself to identify the numerous songbirds of Erie, County. Along with her husband, she was a Civil War buff and enjoyed trips throughout the years to almost every known Civil War site and also her trips every few years to Kalaheo, Kauai, Hawaii, to visit her sister. Spending time at the family vacation home in the mountains of Lycoming County in north central Pennsylvania was a special joy. Most of all, she loved interacting with her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.

Beverly died September 14, 2022, at the age of 85, at St Vincent Hospital following a brief illness. She is survived by her husband, Donald James Renn, Edinboro, and her three daughters: (1) Janet Renn Nelson (Bill), Albuquerque, New Mexico, (2) Julie Renn Tinkey (Douglas), Harrisburg, PA, and (3) Jennifer Renn Berger (Bill) of Edinboro. She is further survived by her six grandchildren: Kyle, Kaley, and Kelsey Berger of Edinboro and Nathan Renn, a federal attorney in Maryland, Heather (Trisha) Hayward, a Physical Therapy Assistant, in Orlando, Florida, and Vanessa Tinkey (Michael Hupp), a pharmacist. There are three great grand children Lily, Lucas, and Aria. Beverly‘s beloved sister, Nina Morris Magoun, and brother-in-law, Dr. Thatcher Magoun, M.D., Hawaii, also survive.

There will be visiting hours on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 from 2:00 until 5:00 P.M. at First United Presbyterian Church, 4281 Rt. 6N, Edinboro, PA 16412. A memorial service will follow at 5:00 P.M.

The Glunt Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc., Edinboro is entrusted with funeral arrangements.

Burial will be near her home at the Washington Valley Cemetery at the corner of Route 6N and Sharp Road, overlooking the scenic valley that Beverly loved so well. Memorials may be made to First Presbyterian Church of Edinboro at the address above, or to the Macular Degeneration Association at macularhope.org/donate. To send condolences please visit www.gluntfuneralhome.com.