Beatrice (Battle) Headen

Beatrice Headen, age 92, died at her home in Solon, Ohio on May 24, 2023. She was born on June 4, 1930, to the late Rosetta Battle and the late Arthur Battle in Rounaway, Mississippi. Beatrice was the second oldest of ten children. Church was an important part of the Battle family’s life in Mississippi. She was surrounded by a loving extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, sisters, and brothers. She was voted Miss Home Economics Queen which afforded her travel opportunities to several states in the South during her youth. She became an advocate of education when she and her sister Rosetta moved in with a loving teacher named Mrs. Edwards who opened doors of educational opportunities for them. She graduated from Mound Bayou High School. Ms. Edwards provided her and Rosetta a lifetime of love of learning. 

Beatrice accepted Christ at an early age and was baptized in the Mississippi River at the young age of eight years old. She was baptized by A. Harrison Banks. She was chosen by Church leadership to go to the prestigious Sunday School Convention in Birmingham, Alabama at the age of 14. The church paid for her travel as well as piano lessons and Beatrice played the piano for the church Sunday School for several years before coming to Cleveland, Ohio.  

Rosetta Battle, Beatrice’s mom, was a sharecropper. Beatrice, Rosetta, and Ann (Beatrice’s sisters) picked cotton for a good portion of her childhood and Rosetta and Beatrice often took on the chores of assisting their mother in raising a large family. Every day she had to walk 5 miles back and forth each day to go to school. In 1947, at the age of seventeen, Rosetta moved her family of ten children to Cleveland, Ohio. To her last days, Beatrice always spoke lovingly of her aunt, Ruth Williams, who moved out of her one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, Ohio so that Beatrice’s mother, Rosetta and her ten children could move to Cleveland, Ohio. Beatrice took nursing training at St. Vincent Charity Hospital and served as a nurse there for eight years. In 1956, she met the man who would be her husband and life partner for 56 years, Elmer Headen. They were married on October 27, 1956. To this union were born four boys, Keith, Raymond, Michael, and David.  

Throughout their long life together, Beatrice and Elmer were longstanding members of The New Light Baptist Church. At New Light, she was chairman of the Women’s Day Committee, a member of the Mother’s Board and numerous other activities. Beatrice and Elmer were role models and examples in the lives of their children. Beatrice was president of the Parent Teachers Association at Miles Standish Elementary School. Beatrice dedicated her life to her family. She was the nucleus of the family. She arose at 6 am to prepare a hot breakfast for her children and made sure there was a hot meal for dinner in the evening. She was a role model to her many nieces and nephews but had special place in her heart for Deborah Weathersby and Marion Cavin who were like daughters and who took special care of Beatrice throughout her life but especially after the passing of her husband Elmer in 2012.  

Elmer and Beatrice modeled Christ in how they raised their children. They were a team - leading by example - in faith, character, humility, love, honor, and a desire for their children to do their very best and to do what is right. Each of their children are college graduates. The majority have master’s degrees or higher. Further, all have confessed Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. 

On May 24, 2023, at the age of 92, Beatrice Headen entered eternal rest. Preceding Beatrice in death was her husband, Elmer, her stepdaughter Cynthia and her sisters Rosetta Weathersby, Annie Ruth Harris, Ruby Lee Morton, Ernestine New, Beulah Terrell, Betty Battle and a host of close brothers and sisters in law, friends, and family. Left to cherish her memory is her sister Dorothy Leek, brothers Cornelius (“Ned”) Battle and Fred Battle, sons Keith, Raymond (Miesha), Michael (DeAngela) and David (Sherry) Headen; grandchildren, Jennifer (Wade) Seaton (Greg), Christopher Wade (Minty), R. Carl, Jr., David Jr, Matthew, Maria, Brianna, and Thomas Headen, Brittani Flagg (Lenny), Tiffani Renfroe; great grandchildren, Savannah Wade, Layla and Ryan Seaton, Christopher and Maverick Wade, Parker Flagg; and a large host of nieces, nephews, cousins and other loving relatives and friends. 

TO OUR MOTHER 

Mom: Words cannot express how much you have meant to each of us. Everything we are is the product of how you quietly and strongly shaped us. You sacrificed. You guided. You led. You were always present for us. You let us spread our wings to become the men that God wants us to be. We will greatly miss you. However, we also know that you are now in the presence of God -- the Creator of all things. So, you are happy. You fought the good fight and finished the race. We can only hope that as men, as husbands, as fathers, as role models, as family members and in our dealings with others that we will live the example you and our father Elmer set for us. We look forward to seeing you later. We thank God for the life of Beatrice Headen, our mother, the rock of our family and our pathway to the Lord.   

Your Sons: Keith, Raymond, Michael, and David 

Proverbs 22:6  

Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it. 

PSALM 23 

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.  

He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 

PSALM 27:1 

The Lord is my light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear? 

The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

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