M Sturdivant-Bedell

Mildred Beatrice "Bea" Bedell Sturdivant, 90, of Ashland, passed away Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010, in King's Daughters Medical Center. She was born Aug.12, 1920, in Lawrence County, Ky., daughter of the late George Edward and Millie Mae Carter Wilson. Bea was a graduate of Thomas R. Brown High School, Ashland Business College and Southern School of Cosmotology. She was a Charter Member of Ashland Area Creative Arts Club, Order of Eastern Star and Oakland Avenue Baptist Church. During WWII Bea was a welder in the Lancaster, Pa. shipyards. Bea was a renowned local artist with several well recognized paintings.

Surviving are a daughter, Pamela Gillum and her husband Lee of Ashland; two grandaughters, Christi Porter and her husband Jeremy of Ashland and Karen Phillips and her husband Jeremy of Findlay, Ohio; three great-grandchildren, Parker Phillips, Wyatt Porter and Belle Porter; a sister, Ethel Marie Adams of Lancaster, Pa.; and numerous nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews

Preceding Bea in death was her first husband, Charles Robert Bedell; second husband, James Thomas "Tom" Sturdivant; brothers, Morda Wilson, Arnold "Punch" Wilson, Dock Wilson and Ed Wilson; and a sister, Elizabeth Wheeler.

Funeral services honoring Bea Bedell Sturdivant will be at 1 p.m. today, Dec. 13, 2010, at Kilgore & Collier Funeral Home on Panola Street in Catlettsburg. Pastor Mike Blankenship will offer a comforting message. Final rest in Golden Oaks Cemetery.

Friends may call from 11 a.m. until service time today at the funeral home