Beulah Enfield “Boo” Law (Sept.15, 1922-Dec. 5, 2016)

Boo Law of Bethesda, Maryland, the mother of Jeanne Hale (Piqua, Ohio), passed away on December 5, 2016 after a recent illness. Boo, who was very proud to be born an American citizen, was born and raised on a ranch in the Sand Hills of Arthur County, Nebraska where her parents John H. and Minnie Jorgensen Enfield homesteaded in 1914. She had four older brothers Johnie F., Arthur, Virgil, and Lawrence as well as a husband, Melvin Law, a son, John Law, and a daughter, Mona Law Pedersen who all preceded her in death. She is survived by a younger sister, Mary (Rock Hill, South Carolina), her daughter, Jeanne Hale, sons-in-law Dr. Roger Hale and Chief Warrant Officer Poul Pedersen (Stafford, Virginia), as well as six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.  Boo's family in Nebraska includes her niece and nephews and their spouses: Corylus & Mike Treffer of Scottsbluff, Dave and Barb Enfield of Grant and Terry & Cheri Enfield of Arthur. 

Though Boo lived in Los Angeles for ten years and Bethesda for the rest of her life, she always thought of the Sand Hills as home. She spent her early years growing up on the family “L♥” ranch, east of Arthur, Nebraska, homesteaded in 1914 by her parents.  Boo’s Mother was of Danish immigrants and her father Pensylvania Dutch and German ancestry, but besides her own roots Boo adopted being Irish and Scottish and because of her husband’s ancestry became a life member of the MacLaren Society of North America.

Boo was a woman of many and varied accomplishments. These included teaching in one-room schoolhouses at Center Valley and Vasa near Keystone, Nebraska, and working at Lockheed in Burbank, California building B-17 bombers during WWII as a “Rosie the Riveter”. She was also a WWII rations chairman. Boo loved young people, traveling, volunteering and nursing. Boo volunteered as a Brownie leader in 1957 and never quit scouting. She was a Life Member of the Girl Scouts of America where she served as a leader of Brownies, Juniors, Cadets and Senior Scouts. She took her Senior Troop #1978 to Canada and Europe twice. Her Mariner Scouts went to Mystic, Connecticut, and many other sailing-related trips. She was the Chairman of the National Explorer Congress for five years and the Ogden Program advisor. She participated in events at all four Girl Scout World Centers (London, Switzerland, India and Mexico) and her troop had tea with Lady Baden Powell, founder of the Girl Guides. She was chairman of a National Girl Scout event called “Petticoats, 'Pot' and Politics” (1972) where among many other activities they toured Air Force 1 and concluded with a visit to the White House, hosted by Julie Nixon Eisenhower. She continued as a special events chairman for the Nation's Capitol Council of the Girl Scouts for many years. Boo loved scouting and established a Scholarship at Montgomery College, Rockville Maryland for Girl Scouts. Throughout the years she stayed in touch with many of her scouts, who saw her as a model of a sharing, resourceful and independent woman. A dozen of them attended Boo's 90th birthday party.

Boo received a teaching certificate from Nebraska School of Agriculture in Curtis, Nebraska in 1941, and took pre-nursing classes at Glendale College. She received her RN in 1949 from Los Angeles County General Hospital and started work there in labor and delivery. Her career spanned many decades including work at the National Institutes of Health and Holton Arms School in Bethesda, Trinity College and the Department of Labor in Washington DC, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and twenty-five years at the Army Distaff Hall (Knollwood Military Retirement Residence) in Washington, D.C. She was a Girl Scout camp nurse. Boo was a lifelong student and practitioner of natural health and a Life member of and contributor to the National Hygiene Society now known as the National Health Association.

Boo was an avid traveller having visited over 150 countries covering all continents (Silver member of Travelers Century Club) and was a Life Member of American Youth Hostels. She also had a great love of antique cars and was a Life Member and benefactor of the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She donated her ‘50 Chevy “Betsy” to the museum where it is on display today. 

Boo worked tirelessly to help build her community. She founded the Cohasset Garden Club, and wrote their newsletter The Cloudburst. She also established Flash Flowers at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. She collected food from the Bethesda Co-op and delivered it to Manna (a local food bank) in Gaithersburg, Maryland for over twenty years to be distributed to those in need. Two years ago she was recognized for this service by Manna and featured in the Bethesda Gazette for single-handedly collecting over a half-million pounds of food for the hungry. 

When the Capital Crescent Trail project was starting she immediately dove in and helped underwrite the project. She, of course, worked on the trail when construction started. She was a charter member of the commission to build the WWII memorial in Washington D.C. 

Boo had a strong faith. She attended and volunteered at her church the 'Community of Christ' in D.C. where she taught Sunday school for years. 

Boo was adventuresome. She rafted on the Colorado River when she was seventy-five, canoed and backpacked many times, sailed on freighters, on the Sea Cloud II (a three-masted barque) where she had a dinner with her Jeopardy TV idol, Alex Trebek, and she sailed around the world on the Aegean I to celebrate year 2000. She flew in private planes, helicopters, and on the Concord to Europe in 1984 and returned on the Queen Mary II. In 2014, at the WWII Fly-In in Pennsylvania, she went on a flight aboard a B-17 bomber the 'Flying Fortress'. This particular plane was built on the assembly line in Burbank Ca. where Boo worked as a “Rosie the Riveter” during WWII. She had riveted the wings on the plane she flew in Seventy years later! Another adventure she had while monitoring albatross on Midway Island was having an opportunity to talk to a U.S. Astronaut aboard the Meir Space Station from the cockpit of an Air Force C-5 Galaxy.

As Boo’s favourite quote from Snow White says, “If I try hard enough, I can do anything I want to do.”

A Memorial service is planned for April 22nd, at 2PM. 
It will be held at Boo's church:
Community of Christ,
3526 Massachusetts Ave NW,
Washington, DC, 20007.

Burial is planned for June 10^th, at the Arthur Cemetery, Arthur NE.
If you have any questions about either the Memorial Service or the Burial feel free to contact Jeanne Hale at (937) 570-2346 or by email to eye9010@aol.com or Poul Pedersen at (301) 803-8229 or by email to poul@reagan.com

We will all miss Boo dearly, although we know she is entertaining her old friends with her adventuresome stories.

In Lieu of flowers, donations to either the Boo Law Girl Scout Scholarship or Boo’s church the Community of Christ Church in D.C. would be appreciated.

To donate to the Community of Christ Church make your check payable to ‘Community of Christ Church’, please note on the check ‘Boo Law’ and mail to:

 Community of Christ,
 3526 Massachusetts Ave NW,
 Washington, DC, 20007
 For questions please contact Florance Gubanc at 703 598-4228

For the Boo Law scholarship for Girl Scouts do the following:

Make out your check to 'Montgomery College Foundation', note on the check 'Boo Law Scholarship'.

Send the check to:
 Montgomery College Foundation,
Att: Francene Walker
 40 W. Gude, Suite 220
 Rockville Maryland 20850
 For questions contact Francene: 240 567-7491

Nebraska Donation Organizations:
Boo loved reading news from 'home'. Arthur Enterprise POB 165, Att: Karen Sizer, Arthur, NE 69121-0165
or
Arthur Cemetery Association POB 95, Att: Carolyn Cerny or Arthur Betterment Authority POB 31, Att: Terry Enfield, both at Arthur, NE 69121.