Beatrice V. de Lalla Beatrice Virginia de Lalla, 90, of Boston, passed away Friday, September 23, 2011 at the Concord Healthcare Center, Concord after a period of failing health. Born April 25, 1921 in Bayonne, New Jersey she was the daughter of the late Dominic de Lalla and Anita (Mucci) de Lalla. Beatrice attended Douglass College at Rutgers, New Jersey, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and MIT in Boston. She worked as a chemist and an accountant. She enjoyed Baroque Music, Italian history and culture. Beatrice was an art enthusiast, pacifist, political activist, and business observer. She was a volunteer at Emmanuel Music, Boston and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is survived by her brothers, Richard de Lalla of Abington and Oliver de Lalla of Davis, CA; her nieces and nephews, John de Lalla, Beth Foley, Kimberly Greenlaw, Rosemary Lawler, Richard de Lalla and Lisa Townsend. Funeral Information A graveside service was held on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 9:00AM in Melrose Cemetery, Brockton. John de Lalla (Nephew) read Eulogy. Eulogy for Beatrice Virginia de Lalla We are here to remember Beatrice Virginia de Lalla. She will always be close to my heart and thoughts. Bea has left a profound and lasting impression on me. My view of life, love, and commitment is deeper because of Auntie Bea. Beatrice was born in Bayonne NJ on April 25, 1921. She was 90 years when she passed away. Beatrice lived a long and full life. Kim, Beth, and I were fortunate to have seen her shortly before she died. Some would say Beatrice waited for us to see her that night before she departed this world. She was a small lady in size but her personality was larger than life. Beatrice was quite the cosmopolitan soul and most people would never suspect it. Beatrice lived in Boston her last few years of life, but she had been quite the world traveler. She always consider New York and New Jersey her roots. She spent a number of years living in California and Europe. She lived in Rome and Copenhagen traveling there on luxury transatlantic ocean liners. Bea worked in the American consulate - she may have been doing some undercover government work but Bea never told us what she did there. Some think she was working for the CIA. Bea would be the last person I would suspect as a spy but that may be the best kind of spy! Beatrice attended some of the top colleges in the country - Douglass College for Women (Rutgers), Cornell, and MIT. Professionally she had been a chemist, foreign affairs agent, and accountant. While working at an accounting agency in California, she handled the personal bank accounts for Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan while they were married. Bea said that Jane had more money than Ron. Beatrice was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. Bea was conversant on business, science, art, music, politics, religion, literature - she knew a lot of stuff. I always could learn something from her if I asked. She spoke Italian and was an expert on Italian culture, history, and life. Kim and Beth would fight over whose side she would be on in Trivial Pursuit, she knew all the answers. She played the piano, read all the classic books, and knew all the great composers. Baroque music was a one of her true passions in life. Bea was a volunteer at Emmanuel Music in Boston and the Boston Symphony. I always enjoyed our talks on significant issues like war, investments, or design she was full of good rhetoric. Beatrice had a charitable heart. She contributed time and money to many worthy causes. She was active at Emmanuel Church in Boston. The Reverend Pamela Werntz of Emmanuel Church sent me a kind note about the passing of Bea and dedicating prayers to her at last Sunday's mass. She was part of their community. As a pacifist she protested and demonstrated against many issues that she believed were wrong like the death penalty. She had intensity about her causes; I was shocked to hear that she was arrested with others in Washington DC for protesting against the Vietnam War! Beatrice had respectable domestic skills too. She was a good cook; though she did not cook often, she impressed me with some nice dinners at her apartment. Bea also baked excellent homemade pies. My kids enjoyed those pies very much. She always surprised us or the kids with gifts she had purchased from stores like Lord and Taylor's. She always had good taste. She prided herself by always being dressed with classic style and wearing shoes with heels to make her taller. Bea never owned a pair of pants until I bought a pair; she refused to wear them because it was not lady like. She was always in good physical condition because she walked throughout Boston, never having a driver's license. She was really a renaissance woman. Beatrice introduced me to my alma mater, The Boston Architectural Center. She knew the dean of the school and I stopped in to visit on my way home to California. I applied, was accepted, and moved to Boston, where I started my professional career. Beatrice was not like us. She saw the world a different way; some times better than it really was and some times worse than it really was. She embraced life and all the highs and lows that go with it. She had a passionate connection with everyone she knew and Bea was never afraid to speak her mind - about any subject. We all have had some impassioned discussions with her at one time or another. She was always searching for the beauty and meaning in life. Engraved on the base of the tombstone is the last line from Dante's The Divine Comedy: l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle. -- The Love that moves the sun and the other stars. The poem is Dante Alighieri's imaginary journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven during which he encounters historical and mythological creatures, each symbolic of a particular fault or virtue. In the poem, Beatrice, Dante's great love, whom he regarded as a manifestation of the divine, is his guide through paradise. Beatrice de Lalla has been a guide through my life and I will cherish the memories.