Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner
Beverly Jean Fenner
[b 20 Nov. 1929 at Olean, Cattaraugus Co., NY; d 1 May 2022 at Catonsville, MD] Beverly Jean Fenner was raised in the small village of Shinglehouse, PA, and was baptized into the Methodist Episcopal Church there on 31 July 1932. Her mother Bess taught Sunday School at the church. Shortly after her Methodist confirmation on 4 Jan. 1942, her family moved to Baltimore in 1942 so her father could work as a shipbuilder for the war. She became a longtime member of Howard Park Methodist Church.
At age seventeen, she began teaching Sunday School, and over the many years became one of the most trusted and beloved leaders in both the congregation and the Church School, at various times serving as President of the United Methodist Women, on the Administrative Board, and as a Lay Member of the Annual Conference. Beverley was an active participant in the church’s Epworth League, and it was at one of their social functions in 1945 that she met her future husband, Ken Buckingham, a returning World War II soldier who was thirteen years her senior, and whose family were actively involved in the church.[1]
On 6 Sept. 1947 in Baltimore, MD, Beverley Jean Fenner m Kenneth Lee Buckingham [b 30 June 1916 at Baltimore, MD; d 16 July 2004 at Kensington, MD]. Kenneth’s brother Jack insisted on calling Beverley by her middle name, and over time, everyone else in the church followed suit. After completing college, Ken worked as a teacher in Aberdeen. In 1955, Jean and Ken moved into a home built by her father on Beethoven Avenue in Baltimore.
During the 1960s, the Howard Park neighborhood began to experience an accelerating change in its ethnic make-up. The first African American child registered at the Howard Park Elementary School #218 in the fall of 1960, and unscrupulous realtors used this and similar news to frighten prejudiced homeowners with the prospect of falling property values. In consequence, a “white-flight” was triggered, which caused the Buckinghams to lose many of their long-time friends and neighbors. The membership of the Howard Park Methodist Church fell dramatically, from 1,310 members in 1960 to 747 members, most of them elderly, in 1970. Jean felt strongly that she needed to do whatever she could to live out the ethic of Christian love and hospitality toward her new neighbors, and to save her beloved church. She began a campaign of reassuring the elderly white membership of the church that they needed to reach out to the African American community, welcoming anyone who showed an interest in the church’s community and programs. She made it a point to set the example, greeting all new comers warmly, introducing them to church leaders, inviting them to return, and encouraging them to invite others. With her children older, Jean took on the position of church secretary, and from that office, used her influence to point the way to the future, identifying gifts and talent in the new African American members, and encouraging them to risk accepting leadership positions. Though she never became politically active or a visible worker in the civil rights movement, Jean nonetheless played the key role in her small corner of the world in bridging the gap of ignorance and prejudice between the races.[1]
Nonetheless, Jean and Ken relocated their home to Woodlawn in 1972, and by 1995, with most of her old friends and neighbors worshiping elsewhere, she opted to move her membership to Mount Olive United Methodist Church in Randallstown, Baltimore Co., MD.
Jean loved to travel, and was involved family trips to places including Bermuda, Hawaii, Israel, Rome, Paris, Pompeii, England, Scotland, Florida, Québec, Tennessee, Michigan, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, California, Puerto Rico, Acapulco, the Virgin Islands, Alaska, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, and Gettysburg.
By 2000, Ken had started to develop Parkinson’s Disease, and bad fall down a set of stairs hastened his physical decline. They moved into a condo in Ellicott City in 2002. Ken was put into hospice in July 2004 and died there. In 2015, Jean moved into a retirement home in Catonsville, MD, where she struck up a companionship with a man named Lloyd Linwood Wells. Wells died on 20 Sept. 2020, and Jean’s son Rick officiated the service.
“She has been trained . . . as an office secretary. Her true vocation, however, has been as a Christian. Her incomparably selfless giving of her time and energy for the benefit of others has made her the most loved and cherished person in the life and history of her Christian congregation.”[2]
Richard Lee (“Rick”) [b 17 May 1951]. Rick became an ordained deacon in Washington, DC, on 22 June 1997; he is a genealogist who has contributed information about his lineage to this website. He had Jodi [b 25 Feb. 1982], Lindsay [b 23 May 1985], and Tyler [b 19 Mar. 1990].
James Bruce [b 18 Oct. 1952] m Patricia Lynn Slack in Elliot City, MD.
Glenn Raymond [b 12 June 1957] m 1st Carol Lee Kettering and divorced; m 2nd Denise Ruotolo and had one son; m 3rd Doreen —.
Sharen Jean [b 11 July 1963] m James E. Prosper, Jr. and divorced.