Great Depression gripped the nation, Mr. Beatty usually managed to rustle up a job during those years. He manually reset pins at French Lick’s first bowling alley, worked at the town’s only movie theater, delivered groceries, and took on various positions until entering World War II in 1942.
Before Mr. Beatty was sent overseas, he and Billie drove to a country preacher’s house in the middle of the night, woke the minister from a sound sleep, and were married in his parlor. Mr. Beatty was 20 and his bride was 16.
There was no honeymoon. The new Air Force enlistee joined 25,000 other soldiers on the famous Queen Mary luxury liner bound for England. For the war’s duration, Mr. Beatty was stationed in Stowemarket and repaired battle-damaged B-17s.
After the war, he attended Chicago’s Worsham College of Mortuary Science on the GI Bill and graduated with honors. However, the young veteran had trouble finding work in the funeral home business. With a wife and baby to feed, Mr. Beatty took a job as a pipe fitter. A life of directing funerals was replaced by a career in fitting pipe.
Mr. Beatty was a 56-year member of Pipe Fitters’ Local 597 in Chicago when he died. He started as a fitter and was promoted through the years to foreman, general foreman, and piping superintendent. He was known as a “tough but fair” boss. Mr. Beatty mainly ran jobs in Northern Indiana, Southern Ohio, the Chicago area, Joliet, and Morris, Ill.
The piping trade took the Beattys to Portsmouth, Ohio, in the 1950s. While living there, Marvin and Billie discovered the Episcopal Church. They were confirmed in 1958. Although the Beattys relocated several times during their lives, their denomination remained Episcopal until their deaths. Finding a new church home was a top priority each time the family moved. Mr. Beatty was on the vestry or was senior warden in every church they joined.
Soon after their confirmation in Portsmouth, Mr. Beatty’s work landed the family in Chicago Heights, Ill., for the next 16 years. While living in the suburb, their growing boys revived Mr. Beatty’s love of baseball and renewed memories of playing back home in French Lick. Mr. Beatty was elected president of Chicago Heights’ Little League in 1960, and he resigned 13 years later. During his tenure, the number of players tripled and he spearheaded campaigns to build three new ball fields. Almost 1,000 people attended his retirement banquet in 1973. There, the League’s directors announced that the newest field had been named after their longtime leader.
Mr. Beatty rekindled his old passion for baseball in Chicago Heights, but he found a new pursuit there that eventually earned national acclaim. He began researching his ancestry shortly after moving to the Heights in the 1960s. Four decades later, he had compiled such extensive records that he was considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on the Beatty family. He published seven genealogical books and has several Web sites devoted to his work. He also organized the Beatty Family Reunion for 16 years. Relatives from California to the Carolinas reconnected every summer in French Lick until poor health limited Mr. Beatty’s travels a few years ago. He regarded genealogy as his most important contribution to current and future generations.