Beverly Flechsig
Beverly Flechsig, age 74, passed away from Parkinson’s Disease in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 8, 2025. She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert (1951-1990), and rascal of a son, Sawyer (1987-2024). She was also the mother of Samantha (Luis Ruiz) and Cassandra Flechsig, and grandmother of Marisa, Maxwell, and Eva Ruiz. She was survived by her two older brothers, Ro (Lori) and Brian (Jerilyn) Jodat.
Beverly, a trained pianist, met her husband, a guitarist and tuba player, while they were studying music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Although the need to enter the workforce prevented her from completing her music degree, she returned to college when her children were in grade school and earned her Bachelor’s degree in accounting. She worked as an accountant at Northwestern Publishing House, a Christian publishing house and bookstore.
Bob and Beverly were married at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Cudahy on April 27, 1973, where they remained members until their respective deaths. Before starting their own family in 1980, they spent several years simply enjoying each other’s company and then working (and living in) a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. Though the job proved challenging, it was so fulfilling that Beverly often told her own children about “the kids” and still enjoyed looking through old photos of them in the final months of her life. Despite significant memory loss, she still remembered their names.
When her husband died suddenly of a heart attack in 1990, Beverly became a single parent. The kids were 3, 8, and 10. She made (terrible) casseroles, unclogged toilets, fixed broken gadgets, and went down to the dark basement at night to figure out why the power went out. She surely was terrified, but never let their kids know. To them—and to others in her family—she was superwoman. 
When both her mother- and father-in-law fell ill, Beverly stepped up to care for them, as Bob had been an only child. She was bedside with her mother-in-law when she passed from Alzheimer’s Disease. A few years later, she would visit her father-in-law before and after work every day to care for him. She would then go home to make dinner for her three kids and help with their homework, which was all in Spanish, as they attended an immersion school. As for her cooking, her husband once described himself as “pouring the mashed potatoes and slicing the gravy” that she had prepared.
Music was an integral part of Beverly’s life. She was a long-time member of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity; she owned two pianos (one, a baby grand, a dream come true for her), and she practiced the flute and violin. She also spent several years assisting with Oak Creek High School musical productions, and often accompanied piano for students when they auditioned in other plays.
Beverly played piano for her church’s choir for several years before going on to direct the choir for another 5. Blessed with a stunning voice, Beverly was occasionally recruited to sing at weddings and other events. Anyone who ever attended a service with her surely heard her loud, clear, and beautiful voice, regardless of where they were sitting.
Pastors commented that they could hear her from the pulpit even though she always sat in back with her kids. While adults were delighted by her strong voice and impressive vocal range, her children were mortified when their peers turned around to see just who on earth was singing so loudly. As adults, her children were proud of her voice and will miss it terribly. 
In addition to teaching piano lessons, Beverly spent many years attempting to get her own children to play instruments. She arranged years of piano, violin, and saxophone lessons for her daughters (to no avail), but her son, Sawyer, did go on to play guitar.
Music wasn’t Beverly’s only passion—she was also in constant search of knowledge. As a proud member of Mensa Wisconsin for several decades, Beverly authored a monthly newsletter column for them in addition to hosting monthly board game parties and play readings. The events were so popular and well-loved that one of her Mensa friends said he happily missed Packers games (gasp!) to attend Shakespeare or August Wilson play readings.
It was immediately obvious to anyone who met Beverly that she was extraordinarily intelligent. She spoke like Frasier Crane and once stated that she believed she and Niles Crane would have “been good friends.” She was also proud that her children learned words like “precariously” when they were seven (this is how they balanced food in the refrigerator).
When her daughter, Cassandra, took a symbolic logic class in college, Beverly borrowed the book from her so she could do the proofs homework for fun. Yes, for fun. As Cassandra pursued a career as a professional writer, Beverly was delighted to edit her early articles, which Cassandra usually read to her over the phone from New York.
She read the thesaurus for fun, and was often late to appointments because she got “carried away” reading her 5-inch-thick dictionary. It got so much use that the cover fell off, and its pages frayed. Fortunately, she kept other dictionaries in every room of the house, which she could turn to at a moment’s notice. When she was in the mood for “modern” entertainment, she’d pop a VHS tape into the VCR—that is, after she finally bought a TV.
When Cassandra moved to New York City in 2005, Beverly began visiting her several times per year. A fiercely independent woman, Beverly learned the bus and subway system so well that she explored the city alone, from the streets of Harlem and the museums along Fifth Avenue down to Brooklyn’s beaches and botanical garden.
Beverly’s extreme practicality made her a terrible gift giver. For Christmas, her children opened gifts like bathrobes, flashlights, and alarm clocks (with the batteries wrapped separately, as though they were somehow an extra gift). Unappreciated at the time, some gifts are still in use. Years later, they would buy her gifts like vacuum cleaners and veggie burgers, which she found absolutely delightful.
She was an early environmentalist, and her kids remember accompanying her to the recycling plant in the early 90s before home pickup was available. Beverly also brought her own reusable bags to the supermarket (which her kids believed was done to embarrass them), and she installed a huge compost bin in her yard in the early 2000s. Her daughter, Cassandra, has since taken on the role of the family’s annoying environmentalist and chose the natural coffin.
For years, Beverly would torture her children by forcing them to attend annual ballet performances of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. During her last few years of life, her adult children had the pleasure of taking her (and her granddaughter) to the ballet twice per year.
Initially reluctant toward animals, Beverly went on to adopt two beagles, Indy and Ophelia, and to love her daughter’s pitbulls. She spent the last 20 years of her life as a vegetarian and requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control, where she adopted her dogs.
In 2015, Beverly was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, though she had been exhibiting symptoms for years. The disease attacks every muscle and fiber of the body and is often accompanied by dementia. Parkinson’s slowly took away her ability to smile, sing, speak, reason, and remember. Her children are grateful to have been able to care for her in her home for several years before her health required her to move to a nursing home. 
Beverly and her husband built their dream home, which the family moved into in 1990, just six months before Bob died. Samantha and her family now live there, and she and her sister are creating a memory garden in honor of their mother. Flower and plant donations (particularly clippings from the gardens of her friends) are welcome.
Visitation at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 3775 E. Cudahy Ave, Cudahy, WI 53110 Wed, June 18th from 4-6pm, funeral service at 6pm. Private interment at Wisconsin Memorial Park.

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