Jessie Powell 06/05/2013 - 1:15pm Jessie Brown Beard Powell, age 98, peacefully entered the Kingdom of God in her beloved home, Traveller's Repose, on Sunday, June 2, 2013, surrounded by her family and friends. Her life-long wish of living and dying in the home and room she was born in was fulfilled. Born May 6, 1915, at Bartow, she was a daughter of the late Brown Buren and Nellie Blanche Beard. The lessons of growing up on the family farm with a strong work ethic, a love of the mountains and the people who lived among them, carried Jessie through a long and colorful life. She attended a two room schoolhouse in Bartow, Durbin Junior High School and was Valedictorian of the 1932 Class of Green Bank High School. She graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan in 1936 and taught at Marlinton High School for six years, where she met her future husband, William W. Powell, whom she married on November 29, 1941. Raising a family and traveling the world as a military wife, she longed to return to her West Virginia and live on the farm where her roots were firmly planted. Upon Bill's retirement from the United States Navy, Bartow became her home again. From 1962 to 1995 she owned and managed the Cass Country Store at Cass Scenic Railroad. Known far and wide for her meticulous knowledge of local history and her love of Pocahontas County, her stories will be long remembered and she will be greatly missed. She is survived by three daughters, Susan Powell Leister, and husband, Dennis Earl, of Rockville, Maryland, Jane Beard Powell, and husband, Ronald Kemnitzer, of Roanoke, VA, and Jessica Ann Brown Cheatham, of West Palm Beach, FL; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren, all of whom she was most proud of and considered to be her greatest blessing. The family is grateful to all who supported Jessie in her final years with visits, cards, prayers and love. Words cannot describe the overwhelming love, care and support of her daily caregivers, Susie Lambert, Amanda Moyers, Tamsyn Hall, Autumn Ryder, Savannah Lambert, Whitney Beverage and Pat and Ronnie Mallow. We will be forever grateful for your loving care and kindness. Family will receive friends Friday, June 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Wallace and Wallace Funeral Home in Arbovale. Funeral service is Saturday, June 8, 2 p.m. at Wallace and Wallace Funeral Home with Rev. David Rittenhouse officiating. Interment in the Arbovale Cemetery.