Activist
Beverly Violin
Dies At 68
Ari Noonan, Culver City News, © 2002
"In the 15th year of an extraordinary test of wills with the ravages of cancer, once forcing the disease into a lengthy retreat, the community activist Beverly Violin, 68 years old, died early Sunday morning at home in Culver City in the presence of her family.
Known city-wide as an organizer of political and communal programs and groups, she actively sought to sidestep the limelight, which, said civic leaders, made her a perfect complement to her equally well-known activist husband, Efrem.
"What Dad put into words, Mom put into action," said the Violins' daughter, Stefani Uhley of Lake Arrowhead. "She was so talented at meeting people and making them feel welcome that she became everyone's mother, everyone's sister. She was a woman of action. That was what made her special. She believed in action, not attention."
After a lifetime of collecting friends virtually by the day in her many-pronged public life, a throng of hundreds turned out for her funeral service on an overcast Tuesday morning at Hillside Memorial Park. Among the speakers, her daughter Kathy gave a wrenchingly emotional account of memories, and daughter Stefani invoked the words of John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love," and then the melody was played for the overflow crowd.
Kathy recalled that her mother's last and strongest battle against cancer began about the time America attacked Afghanistan last autumn in response to Sept. 11. She said her mother vowed to fight as hard and be as successful as the American military.
Friends said Mrs. Violin could count at least one major civic achievement for every one of the 49 years that she and Efrem were married.
An inveterate devotee of crossword puzzles, Mrs. Violin scarcely had time to solve the difficult ones because she wanted her adopted hometown to maintain the smalltown, family oriented character it had when she moved here after World War II.*
If she had a central passion, it may have been her beloved Culver City Democratic Club, which she nurtured from the beginning. She held all of the important offices in the club, and she was deeply committed to keeping Democrats prominent in government at every level.
While she made and kept hundreds of friends, her best pal from school days was Sharon Moorman. Until last weekend, they spoke every day.
In recent years, Mrs. Violin also was a leader in diverse organizations. A past president of the Senior Center board, Mrs. Violin held offices with the Friends of the Library, the Homeowners Assn. of Culver City, and the Landlord-Tenant Mediation Board. Every year in May, she was also active in the Fiesta celebration.
The Westside Board of Realtors honored her work and so did the 47th Assembly District, represented by State Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City).
Through her years of illness, Mrs. Violin swung back with such ferocity that following an initial diagnosis of breast cancer, and emotional setbacks that have defeated others, through a sheer determination to prevail, she knocked the disease into remission for 10 years. Even when she later was diagnosed with uterine cancer, her spirit scarcely flagged, so determined was she to conquer it again.
Born Nov. 29, 1933, in Des Moines, Iowa, it was on the plains of the Midwest that Mrs. Violin discovered a talent for poetry, and in her family circle, she was best known for her rhythmic rhyming. She met her husband Efrem in 1951 when he answered her call for a taxicab.
In addition to her husband and two daughters, she is survived by grandchildren Eric Uhley, Erin Lichtman and Brian Lichtman, one brother, Morrey Friedman of Coronado, and one sister, Phyllis Friedman of Los Angeles.
* Leaving Des Moines, (in 1948) Beverly's family settled in West Los Angeles.
The Violins made their home in Culver City in 1965. (Apologies to Ari Noonan)
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Music: Albinoni: Adagio for strings and organ