Wilma Jean Beachy Gingerich

Wilma Jean Beachy Gingerich, 89, died May 19, 2024, in Harrisonburg, Va. She was born Oct. 22, 1934, to Amish parents, Andrew and Elizabeth (Beachy) Beachy, in Miami County, Ind. When she was 6 years old, her family moved to Kalona, Iowa.

On Aug. 26, 1956, she married Ray C. Gingerich, also of Kalona, and they joined the Conservative Mennonite Church. A week later, they left for Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, where in 1958 she gave birth to twin sons and in 1960 earned an associate of arts degree.

From 1961 to 1968, Wilma and Ray served in Luxembourg with Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions. There, two more sons joined the family. Returning to the United States in 1968, Ray pursued graduate studies and Wilma supported the family on a nurse-aide income. In 1976 she fulfilled her dream of completing a bachelor’s degree in nursing, at Goshen College. In 1984 she earned a master’s degree in community health nursing from the University of Virginia. She worked as a registered nurse at Rockingham Memorial Hospital, in nursing administration at two nursing homes and as a hospice nurse.

Upon her retirement, she served for five months at Jubilee Partners. Back home in Harrisonburg, she volunteered with school-age children and people experiencing incarceration, as an English teacher of her immigrant neighbors and by reading to people with impaired vision.

Surviving are sisters Bertha Beachy and Clara (Ed) Yoder; four sons, James (Barbara) Nelson Gingerich, John Gingerich (Eva Mengelkoch), André Gingerich Stoner and Pierre (Lori) Gingerich-Boberg; and eight grandchildren.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Ray; her parents; and seven siblings.

She was a member of Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, where a memorial service will be held at at 3 p.m. July 14. Memorial donations can be made to Jubilee Partners, PO Box 68, Comer, GA 30629. 

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