Beverly Startt Genetta, loving mother, grandmother
Beverly Startt Genetta died Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Moorestown, N.J. Beverly was born in Reading, Pa., April 27, 1930, to the late Percy William Startt and his wife Emily Earle Blake. She grew up in Cambridge, Md., until her family moved to Rehoboth Beach during World War II. She graduated from Rehoboth High School in 1947 and University of Delaware in 1951.
She married Anthony Lewis Genetta, a Delaware classmate, in 1950, and they brought up two daughters and two sons in Haddon Township, N.J., spending many summers in Lewes or Rehoboth Beach.
While her children were young, Beverly volunteered as a Sunday school teacher, Girl Scout leader, and Cub Scout den mother. When her youngest child reached junior high school age, she also returned to school. She earned master’s degrees from Rowan and Rutgers universities, both in New Jersey, and did other graduate work at Drexel University, Philadelphia, and University of London. She was a member at large of the American Association of University Women, and was elected to Beta Phi Mu, a national society honoring librarians.
For the next 25 years, she worked in or supervised public and special libraries in many New Jersey towns. After she retired she became interested in genealogy and traced her family’s history, and that of her husband, to the 1600s. Her other hobby was heirloom sewing, and she made special occasion clothes for her grandchildren as well as many nieces, nephews, and friends.
After 70 years of marriage, her beloved husband, Anthony, died in November 2022. She is survived by her children, Susan Bradford Genetta and her husband Joel Vineberg of Montreal, Thomas Lewis Genetta and his wife Sylvia Yount of Manakin Sabot, Va., Andrew Startt Genetta and his wife Charlotte Berger Genetta of Haddonfield, N.J., and Ann Hollis Genetta and her husband Robert E. Edinoff of Chester County, Pa.; three treasured grandchildren, Emily, Brad and Tristan Genetta; and many cherished nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 19, in the chapel at Evergreens, 309 Bridgeboro Road, Moorestown, N.J.
