Terrie F. (Jones) Bevins

I am heartbroken to announce the death of my amazing mother, Terrie Bevins, an enthusiastic lover of life. She passed away peacefully at age 84 surrounded by loved ones. My mom was a brilliant political activist and proud liberal. While many people grow more conservative with age, she became more unabashedly progressive. A one time President of the League of Women Voters, she knew the names and voting records of everyone in Congress. She canvassed door to door for Barack Obama, wrote postcards and worked phone banks for the Democratic National Committee and Swing Left, and worked at the polls during the 2020 election.

Terrie was a technical writer and manager at corporations such as Prime Computer, McCormick & Dodge, Dunn & Bradstreet, Gartner Learning and EMC. She made the best of her career in IT but did it mainly to provide for me. Often she joked she should have been a journalist. No doubt she would have been a great one. Not only was she constantly aware of everything going on around her, but she was also a newsy writer and brilliant listener. She had the rare ability to focus on others with extreme empathy. “I care about people,” she would say, often remembering events about her friends’ lives that even they had forgotten.

She was more than an avid reader. Throughout her life, books were her friends. She secretly read novels past her bedtime as a girl in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She parsed through her school books on the El Train as a teen in Chicago. Her favorite book, the one thousand page “And Ladies of the Club” engrossed her happily during challenging times. She subscribed to the New York Times and New York Review of Books. She read anything in front of her, even the cereal box at breakfast.

She came of age during the folk music era of the 1960’s and watched Peter Paul and Mary perform in the coffee houses of Provincetown. Pete Seeger was her hero and she was thrilled to meet him under a tree at his Clearwater Festival on the Hudson River. There she told him how much his songs about unions and the underdog had influenced her life.

Terrie had a talent for fashion and a terrific sense of style. Her ensemble of jeans, a tee shirt, signature scarf, Chicos jewelry, and basketball shoes garnered compliments from everyone she met. She even studied interior design at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

Her second husband, Alan Bevins, was the love of her life. He adored her, wrote her love poems and made her laugh. Together they designed beautiful gardens, rescued dogs and created a blended family.

I am the only child from her first marriage and believe I was the light of my mother’s life. We shared a unique bond, friendship and understanding. We spoke every morning, discussing the weather, my auditions, and the dangers of capitalism. We traded Vegan recipes. She was my greatest champion and believed in my acting talent. She took me to countless plays beginning in my childhood. When she saw me perform in my first professional regional musical she stated with confidence, “You’re just born to it.” I’m so thankful she was able to witness my success in major films and network television.

Terrie lost her own mother when she was six years old, and she always told me that she was determined to be the mother to me that she never had. I am more than lucky to have grown up at the feet of this adventurous, socially conscious, optimistic spirit.

Terrie is survived by her daughter Phyllis Gordon, son in law Tim Spindler, step daughters Holly and Heidi Bevins, and many friends, old and new. There will be a Memorial Gathering on Sunday, May 19 at the Unitarian Church, 80 Main Street, Hudson, MA at 4pm.