Beth Heyne passed away unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm on July 21st, 2021 in Denver, Colorado.  We were heading home following a short vacation to the mountains to see the Renaissance Festival, which had been postponed for the past two years in Arizona. 

Beth collapsed at the airport at around 3AM while we were checking in our bags.  We spent the next three days by her side in the Neuro ICU, but she could not pull through and we made the difficult decision to let her go.  Beth's final act of generosity was to donate her organs to help save several other lives in Colorado and California.  My hope is to someday meet these families if and when we are ready for it.

Beth is survived by her husband Jim Cleary, her 12 year old daughter Teagan, her 11 year old son Rhys, mother Lynne Heyne, brother Mitch Heyne, his wife Meagan, and Beth's young nieces Willow and Aurora.  In her extended family she is survived by aunts Denise Lester, Lisa Lester and Chris Lee, uncles Drew Lester, Rick Heyne, his wife Laura, and Ron Heyne.  Beth's cousins include Aretha Whitehead, her husband Yuri, their daughters Amelie and Katya, Sandy Kloncz, her husband Ken and daughers Sophie and Kelley, Amber Shepler, Sammie Shepler, Aaron Jauch, Samantha Heyne, Lucas Heyne.  Close in-laws include Julie Cleary (SIL), Mary Ann Cleary (MIL) and Mike, Emmet Cleary (FIL) and Paula, and niece Annabelle and nephew Nico.

I tried to list everyone I could think of, please message me (Jim Cleary) on this website if I need to add anyone or make corrections.

Beth was born in Tucson, Arizona on December 31st, 1974.  Beth's early years were spent growing up in the small town of San Manuel north of Tucson, where her father Skip worked at the local copper mine and her mom Lynne worked as a nurse.  Beth's father developed Multiple Sclerosis while Beth was young, and Skip passed away just a year ago in the summer of 2020.

Beth's family moved to Tucson when she was 9 years old, following her brother Mitch's accident (he ran over himself with the family car when he was 6).  In her school years, Beth was an exceptional student but a bit on the shy and quiet side.  She went to school at Amphi Middle School and High School in central Tucson, where her close friends were Michelle and Crissa.  Beth graduated from Amphi High School in 1994.

After graduating from high school, Beth was accepted at the University of Laverne (in California) where the smart, quiet girl from high school blossomed into the social butterfly we all knew and loved.  Beth spent that first year at Laverne away from home, partying with her new friends and growing as a person.  She mentioned many names from that time that escape me, but I recall her talking about Natalie quite a bit.

Beth transferred back to the University of Arizona in Tucson to finish her degree in Psychology, which she often referred to as a "B.S. in B.S.".  She would often try to get into bars with her dear friend Ben Menges before she was 21.  Ben would tell her to avoid smiling because it brought attention to her braces and would get her carded, and Beth would tell him "that's like telling a bird not to fly!"

It was there in early 1996, shortly after her 21st birthday that she met me on a Wednesday night at a Tucson dance club called DV8.  We were both huge fans of 80's dance music.  She was avoiding some other guy that was hitting on her and asked me to dance, so we ended up hanging out all night and after the club closed we were talking in the parking lot when my good friend Eddie Tesch started laughing at me (I was really shy) and said "Are you gonna get her number or what?".  Even though it was 1AM, we actually talked until 4AM on the phone that night.  It was like lightning...we just clicked immediately.

Beth and I moved in together within a few months and stayed together through our two apartments before moving into our tiny house on 9th street, which was in walking distance to tons of fun things to do...she loved going to 4th Avenue to go to the bars and restaurants with friends, or over to Club Congress for dancing, hanging out on University at Frog and Firkin, football games, concerts at Rialto...all of it was close by.  The neighborhood was colorful, with homeless people passing out in our yard more than once and drunk college students yelling and whooping late at night.  But it was always fun.

During this time, Beth worked at Goodwill for a while, the Arizona Bookstore, and took more courses to get a degree in teaching.  At some point she had a change of heart about teaching and ended up working at First American Title for several years, where she met some of her closest friends that liked to party as much as she did.  We became good friends with Nick and Dora Elias and Cathy and Ray Kerege, but Beth loved so many of the women that worked there and treated us like family...Bruce and Erin, Yvonne, Melanie, Kathy (KE), Tamara, and so many others that I am sorry I can't recall them all.  Beth loved you all...

We lived together for 11 years before deciding we were ready to get married on September 29th, 2007.  A year later we had our baby girl, Teagan and although she loved working with the people at First American, she decided to be a stay at home mom and remained so until her passing a few weeks ago.

Our son Rhys was born about 18 months later, and we struggled for 2 years to understand what was going on with our son, who had low muscle tone and was experiencing developmental delays.  We went to specialist after specialist, went through test after test until visiting a doctor at Phoenix Children's Hospital where we learned that Rhys likely had a variation of Soto's Syndrome, which affects 1 in 20,000 births.  Genetic testing later confirmed that this was the case.  We have since met so many wonderful people in the special education community, and one of our favorite activities is attending the Challenger Little League where Rhys plays his favorite sport, baseball.

In the years that have passed since they were babies, Beth raised two wonderful kids.  Teagan is in the gifted program and has made the principal's list ever since I can remember...she has her grandmother's talent for art.  She loves to sew and draw, but her real passion is the theater where she has been participating in drama since she was four years old belting out songs from Frozen in summer camp.  Rhys was attached at the hip with Beth for his entire life, and he loves making his own comic books, reading and going to baseball games.  Beth was the driving force behind our kids, and I can only hope to somehow fill the void now that she is gone.

Beth's entire life was devoted to her family, and especially her children.  It has taken me three weeks since she passed before I had the strength to write this, our loss has been devastating to not just us but everyone that knew her.  I do take comfort in the fact that our last days were together having fun as a family...that she got to see the London Broil juggling act on the last day of her life...that she made clear to me her wishes if the worst was to ever happen (I never thought in a million years that it would)...and that she will live on in the memories of those lives she touched, especially her children.  I am so very lucky to have spent 25 years of my life with my favorite person.

I will be updating these pages with our best memories and photographs of Beth, and I encourage you all to do the same so her kids will know someday just how many people she touched in her short life.

Jim

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