Beverly L. “Bev” Drapeau

Beverly Louise “Bev” Drapeau, age 96, of Galena, IL, completed her earthly journey on September 3, 2024, at home while surrounded by her loving family. To honor Bev’s life, a private family Celebration of Life will be held. Burial will be in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in Galena, IL. The Tri-State Cremation Center is humbly serving Bev’s family.

Bev was born on March 17, 1928, in Vincennes, IN, the first of two children born of Roland E. and Pansy I. (Borden) Grumieaux. Bev grew up in Vincennes, where she absorbed the cultural and culinary traditions of her extended Belgian and French family. Bev had particularly close relationships with her mother and grandmother Rosa (Williams) Borden who instilled in Bev her lifelong love of gardening, flowers, sewing, dolls, and cooking.

Bev attended her first years of high school at St. Rose’s Academy in Vincennes. In the winter of her junior year, she and her family moved to Oberlin, Ohio. After graduating from Oberlin High in 1946, she attended one year of college at Purdue University, where she met Joseph “Joe” Edward Drapeau the 3^rd, who she married on February 7, 1948.

Following marriage, Bev’s life revolved around keeping their many homes and raising her six children. Over the course of their 41-year marriage, Bev and Joe moved over two dozen times across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota, following Joe’s career as a manager of Montgomery Ward and Wickes Furniture stores.

Bev nurtured her growing family with elaborate meals, spotless homes, abundant vegetable gardens, gorgeous flowerbeds, and inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm. Across their many relocations, Bev also proved herself a resourceful craftswoman, working with her husband and children to remodel and build home after home, as Joe’s job pulled them from town to town across the Midwest. Bev and her family especially enjoyed their lakeside cottages in Newaygo, Michigan and Brainerd, Minnesota, where they boated, fished, hunted, trained dogs, skied, and otherwise reveled in the great outdoors.

Bev planted deep roots in Dubuque, IA, where her four oldest children graduated high school, and in Galena, IL, where, in the late ‘70s, she and her family built a row of houses along Rocky Hill Road. Following her husband’s death at their home in Coon Rapids, MN, Bev finally settled in her beautiful home on Rocky Hill Road, where some of her children and grandchildren continue to live.

For the last thirty years of Bev’s life, she continued to be the warmest and most attentive mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother that any family could hope for, always offering her listening ear, her easy laugh, her glowing smile. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, her house was a feast for the senses, permeated by delicious aromas of cookies, cakes, and pies, from spectacular Christmas displays, to vibrant summer blooms, to hearty Thanksgiving Banquets. Her family will forever treasure memories of joyful birthday and holiday celebrations; long evenings of Scrabble, puzzles, and gin rummy; and ample breakfasts and lunches that she lovingly prepared for all who were lucky enough to visit her.

Those left behind to cherish the memory of Bev include, her six children,

Joseph E. Drapeau IV, Galena, IL,

James A. Drapeau, Bellevue, IA,

Jeanette E. (Daniel) Dahlquist, Galena, IL,

Bruce L. (Jolene) Drapeau, Bellevue, IA,

Michael P. (Mary) Drapeau, Bellevue, IA,

and Brent R. (Jeanne) Drapeau, Hayward, WI;

her twenty-four grandchildren,

Joseph (Sherri) Drapeau, Marie (Kelan) Manning, Jennifer (Michael) Wilking, Ben Dodds, Nick (Courtney) Dodds, Sam (Vickie) Dodds, Luke Dodds (Erin Crouse), Bryce (Roseanne) Drapeau, Joel (Heidi) Drapeau, Kyle Drapeau (fiancé Brittney Kohlfenbach), Elizabeth (Cameron) Clinton, Matthew (Rachel) Drapeau, Blake Drapeau, Andrew Drapeau, Stephanie Drapeau, Tara Drapeau, Logan Drapeau, Mitchell Drapeau, Anthony Drapeau, Lexi Drapeau, Riley Drapeau, Erica Drapeau, Jamison (Katie) Drapeau, and Jaiden Drapeau;

her thirty-four great-grandchildren;

and numerous extended family, friends, and neighbors.

Bev was preceded in death by her parents; her loving husband of 41 years, Joseph E. “Joe” Drapeau III; her lifelong friend and brother, Roland J. “Bud” (Ilene) Grumieaux; her daughters-in-law, Diane Drapeau and Nancy Drapeau; and her son-in-law, David J. Dodds.

Bev’s family would like to thank the nurses and staff at Hospice of Dubuque for all of their professional and compassionate care of Bev and her family.

Online condolences may be shared with Bev’s family at www.tristatecremationcenter.com.