Beverly Beckham describes herself as a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, writer, writing coach and cabaret performer. In her cabaret shows, she tells her stories in song.

Both her songs and writings are often personal with themes that spring from every day life. “I believe I was meant to write,”  she says. “It’s not always easy. I write and I rewrite and I rewrite some more. But after 50 years, I know that if I’m honest and I give it enough time, the right words will eventually come. As for the singing? That’s a work still in progress!”

The Early Years

Beckham’s love of storytelling began when she was a child. Her grandmother, “Little Nana,” her father’s mother, whenever she’d visit, would bring with her, not a book, there was no money for books, but magical stories fueled by imagination. “My grandmother made up these stories on the fly, tales whose characters were always children my age having wonderful adventures. With her words, she made me see these children, parks they played in, museums they visited, the joy they felt. She ended her stories always at a critical moment, with a lilting ‘to be continued,’ which left me counting the days until the next chapter.”

Throughout her childhood and teens, Beckham wrote her own stories. Sometimes her writing got her in trouble, (if you read her memoir “Back Then” you’ll find out why) But sometimes it led to short-lived fame. (In eight grade, she had a poem published in a religious poetry anthology.) This thrilled the Sisters of Notre Dame, who encouraged her to keep on writing. Which she did. All through high school, which was taught by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, until her freshman year of college, Beckham loved writing and was praised by her teachers for her work. But, in college, an English teacher wrote the word “TRITE” In red capital letters on her first essay and every essay that followed. After that course ended, Beckham quit writing and didn’t begin again until she was 30.

Columns

Beckham’s first published column was written for The Boston Globe in 1979. It appeared above the fold on the front page. She was 32-years-old. In the beginning, she mailed out her work to newspapers and magazines regularly, wallpapering her office with rejection slips. Eventually she got a job as a stringer, then as a weekly columnist for the Patriot Ledger, a daily newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1985, she moved to the Boston Herald where she wrote editorials and columns for 20 years. In 2005, she began writing a weekly column for The Boston Globe. She has been a Boston columnist for more than four decades.  Her columns and essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world.  Many are in the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series including A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, A 6th Bowl of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul 2, Chicken Soup for the Soul - Children with Special Needs, Chicken Soup for the Soul, New Moms

Books

Beckham is the author of A Gift of Time, a collection of personal essays, Back Then, A Memoir of Childhood, The Best of Beverly Beckham an e-book published by the Boston Globe, and Love Stories: 21 for 21. essays about her granddaughter, Lucy Rose, who has Down syndrome.

Life

Beverly Beckham lives in Canton, Massachusetts with her husband, Bruce. She has three children and eight grandchildren whose milestones, passages and journeys are often woven into her columns.

Because she enjoys singing, she took a cabaret class just for fun when she was 60. That class led to more classes which led to her singing at an open mic in Boston, which led to her writing and performing her own cabaret show, sometimes alone and sometimes with her daughters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5aEAUdT_AY. In addition to writing and singing,  Beckham loves photography and gardening. 

She has been honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for “Outstanding journalism in the fight against drinking and driving,” has received Boston’s “Women Amongst Us” Grimke Award in recognition of her “efforts and contribution to the Boston Community”, the Dr. Adrian Rondileau Award for “professional achievement and community service.”  She also served as a Board Member of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress and is currently an Honorary Member. 

Why this website?

“Readers are always asking me for past columns, which I can never find because I can’t find anything. Organization is not my greatest skill,” Beckham says. “My goal is to create a space where almost everything I’ve written, columns, books, cabaret shows, can be easily accessed.  I found someone who knows what she’s doing and this site is the result. It’s a work in progress. As am I. We, this site and I, have a long way to go. So hold tight because this is only the beginning. 

Why I Write about the eternals

Because times change. Fashions, movies, music, fads come and go. But life, death, joy, despair, happiness, heartache, stops and starts, successes and failures, the way you feel on the first warm day after a long, cold winter, the way you feel when someone breaks your heart. These are things that never change. These are the eternals.

Many of the columns you will find here are about these things that we all share. Many are about family. Many are about friends. Some are about a crazy dog named Molly who died a long time ago. She cost us a fortune in vet bills. But we loved her. Anyway, if you like what you read, please let me know. E-mail me at bev@beverlybeckham.com. And if I don’t write back, e-mail me again. As I might have mentioned, organization, is a skill I struggle with.

Thank you!