Frank Beardsley

Frank Beardsley, a retired writer and branch chief at Voice of America,
passed away from Alzheimer’s disease on September 18 in Annandale,
Virginia. He was 88. Frank was born in Waxahachie, Texas, and later
moved with his family to Dallas, where he attended Southern
Methodist University. After enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1958 he
worked as a news writer and director for Armed Forces Radio and
Television on Okinawa. He later served as a combat correspondent in
Vietnam for Leatherneck, the Marine Corps magazine.

Frank settled permanently in the Washington, DC area in 1966, where
he joined VOA’s Special English branch. The service broadcast news and
feature stories designed especially for listeners who were learning
English as a second language, written in a limited vocabulary and read
at a slower pace. He became branch chief in 1978, at a time when
Special English was becoming especially popular in China and other
Asian nations, and he traveled throughout Asia to expand the listening
audience and meet with local English teaching specialists. Frank also
represented VOA on a joint venture between the U.S. Information
Agency and Maxwell Macmillan Publishers that resulted in a series of
radio and TV English teaching programs called “Tuning in the USA.”
Frank’s years as a high school debater left him with a lifelong
enthusiasm for a friendly political argument. He was an outdoorsman
who accompanied his family on visits to Native American sites in New
Mexico and Arizona, hiking and camping trips along the Grand Canyon
and Appalachian Trail, and fishing expeditions to Chincoteague,
Virginia. He also volunteered with Boy Scout organizations and played
on VOA softball and Fairfax County senior softball teams. He was, like
his baseball hero Frank Howard, a slugger who was anything but a blur
on the basepaths. His home was rarely without a dog, all dearly loved.
Frank was predeceased by his mother, Nellie Belcher, and his sister,
Ellen Childress. He spent 38 continuous years raising four sons into adulthood.

Three sons, Alan (Kathleen), Peter (Sue) and Walter
(Bibiana) were with his first wife, Sueko Takeguchi, and a fourth son
Tom (Kerry) with his second wife, Nancy Beardsley. They all survive him,
along with his sister-in-law, Mary Beveridge, and five grandchildren,
Melissa, Alex, Erica, Allie and Olive.

A funeral service will be held at Messiah United Methodist Church,
6215 Rolling Road, Springfield, Virginia, at 11:00 AM on Saturday,
October 26. Burial will be at the National Memorial Cemetery at
Quantico, Virginia at 12:30 PM on October 28. Donations in memory of
Frank can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the
Make-A-Wish Foundation.

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