Jacqueline Beaman Klein, 86, died peacefully February 29, 2020 at her Virginia Beach home in the presence of her family.
She was born in 1933 in Mt. Ayr, Iowa, the daughter of Floyd "Brady" and Aileene Seaman. She attended Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where she met and married A. Gene Klein in 1955.
After graduation in 1956, he entered the military and became a Navy pilot. Jacque was a dedicated military wife who tirelessly supported and cared for her family through multiple relocations for the Navy. She endured many separations from Gene and shielded her young children from the knowledge of the extent of his dangerous deployments, most notably during the Vietnam war, when Gene was on the USS Forrestal fire during its disastrous fire in 1967; she only notified her children of the disaster after it was known that Gene had survived. Gene eventually served 28 years as a Navy pilot and retired in 1984.
Survivors include her husband of 64 years, Gene; two sons Jeffrey and Gregory, and daughter Barbara Klein. Other survivors include a sister Lora "Lolly" Beaman Summerwill and her husband Ben Summerwill of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a host of cousins and other relatives. No memorial service is planned at this time. At the family's request, memorial donations may be made in her name to the Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation at www.sjogrens.org.
Published in The Virginian Pilot on Mar. 5, 2020.
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