Here is Steve's Obituary. For those of us who attended Concord, his wife Kathie Verhagen was a grade school classmate.. She attended Clackamas HS.
Steven Richard Beadle
March 25, 1947 - November 26, 2022
Obituary
Steven Richard Beadle, 75 years of age, passed at home in Oregon City, OR on November 26, 2022. He was born on March 25, 1947 in Kalispell, Montana to Richard Henry Beadle and Beverly Jeanne Beck. He was married to his precious bride, Kathie Irene Verhagen, for 54 years and they were together for a total of 58 years.
He lived in several cities in Montana as he grew up and money and food were scarce. His parents divorced in 1958 and he and his mom and his brother, Terry, moved to Seattle, WA, and then eventually to Pasco, WA. In 1960, after his Mom remarried and started having more children, he and Terry moved to the Portland area with his Dad, eventually settling in Oak Grove. He started high school in the fall of 1961, having attended 13 different schools beforehand, but managed to remain all 4 years at Milwaukie High School. In May of 1964, his Dad remarried and moved back to Portland. He begged and pleaded to be able to finish his senior year at Milwaukie High School and was able to move in with his good friend, Vance Ginther and his family. He attended church and Sunday School with the Ginther’s every week. It was there that he met his future bride, Kathie, and gave his life to the Lord Jesus and was baptized on October 11, 1964. In November 1967, he and Kathie were engaged and they married on July 27, 1968.
Early Summer 1968, he started working at Omark Industries in the Chrome Plating Department, where his future father-in-law was his boss. During the same time, he also worked as a youth minister at Concord Christian Church in Milwaukie and attended NW Christian College and earned a Bachelor’s of Theology in 1970. They welcomed their first child, Serena Joy, in July of 1970, and their second, Jade William, in April 1973. He was laid off from Omark in 1975 when he started half-time duty as Associate Pastor of the then newly established Tualatin Hills Christian Church. To supplement the part-time income, he additionally worked for Woodmen Accident and Life Insurance Company, only to quit 10 months later and continue full-time at Tualatin Hills. In 1977, while suspecting they were pregnant with their third child, they moved across the country to Johnson City, Tennessee where he attended Emmanuel School of Religion, in hopes of earning his Master’s Degree. His woodworking hobby was nourished after purchasing tools from the local Sears. He went on to build many fine pieces of craftsmanship, including an Oak Armoire, antique style pie safes, 16’ x 24’ deck, a couple of storage sheds, cabinets, book-shelves, entertainment centers, end tables, dressers, coffee tables, other small toys and useful household items. He became the Senior Pastor at King Springs Church of Christ in early 1978. In March 1978, they welcomed their third child, Jeanne Ann Marie. Due to his wife’s father passing away in the Summer of 1979, they returned home to Oregon in 1980 where he stayed for the remainder of his life.
At this time, he started working for his good buddy, “Big” Bill Lewis at Sonshine (that’s S-O-N-shine) Towing for about 18 months, while also working part-time as an unpaid volunteer at Concord Christian Church again. After Bill and Donna Lewis closed Sonshine Towing and sold their tow truck to Speed’s Towing, Steve continued as a tow truck driver for Speed’s Towing where he remained for 8-½ years. While working there, he put his woodworking hobby to use and built a whole desk system for Speed’s. It was on his weekly Wednesday’s off that he started writing his first novel. He went on to publish 6 novels on Amazon Kindle from 2013-2019, including The Brown Mountain Lights, Gorgeous, The Mona Lisa McIntyre Trilogy and Torrents. He was in the process of writing his 7th novel, titled Beck, when he passed. In 1990, he started working in the consumer loan division at Bank of America, but was only there for 6 weeks. He worked several various temp jobs after this until he was hired back at Bank of America in loan processing through the Spring of 1994. He worked for Oregon Public Broadcasting as an administrative assistant in TV programming from 1995 until he retired on January 29, 2010.
He is preceded in death by his parents, parents-in-law and step-parents. He was a devoted son, brother, husband, uncle, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He is survived by his loving wife, Kathie, 3 children, Serena, Jade and Jeanne; 3 brothers, Terry, John and Jeff and sister, Bev; 3 grandchildren, Matthew, John, and Hannah; 1 great granddaughter, Alyra; 2 nieces, Tonya and Lindsay and 2 nephews, Zachary and Dustin and 6 great nieces and nephews.
While working on an alfalfa farm near Kennewick in the summer of 1962, he learned how to play guitar from Bill Hammack, a close friend of his mother’s. A couple years later, he wrote his first song, called Happy Man, which was inspired by his time on the farm in Kennewick. He went on to write dozens more songs and sing and play his guitar in various music groups and bands throughout high school and college and into his adult married years. Music, singing and playing the guitar was a large part of his life. He worked hard his whole life to provide for his family and especially to tell them about Jesus and pray for them always. He loved having the family all together sharing a wonderful meal. He was an extremely gifted writer, musician, preacher, Sunday School teacher, bible study facilitator and encourager. He loved people deeply and was very keen on making them chuckle with his funny jokes, puns and general silliness. He will be deeply missed and yet his family and friends rejoice that he has shed his earthly tent to walk in eternal peace and joy with his Heavenly Father in that glorious mansion Jesus prepared for him.
