Daphne Beardman

Daphne Beardman February 2nd, 1934 - June 14th, 2020 Daphne Assimacopoulou Beardman, a woman of remarkable distinction, humanity, and culture, died peacefully in her temporary home in Birmingham, Michigan on June 14th in the presence of her daughters. The cause was acute leukemia. She was born on February 2nd, 1934, in Haifa, Palestine (then under the British Mandate, now Israel), to a Greek family that had lived in the Middle East for several generations. Her education began in an English school in Haifa. After her family became refugees in early 1948, they lived for a while in Damascus, Syria, and Beirut, Lebanon, and eventually settled in Athens, Greece. She completed her secondary education in a French school in Damascus, where she received her baccalaureate. She then worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Beirut, and helped them to set up and run an office in the Congo. She married an American artist, John Beardman, whom she met in Greece. They settled into a beautiful old home on Franklin Boulevard in Pontiac, Michigan where they raised their two daughters, Stephanie and Irini. While a young mother, Daphne received her Master's degree in English with a focus on Linguistics at Oakland University, where her husband was a professor of studio art, and where she briefly taught courses in Modern Greek. The marriage was dissolved after eighteen years and she did not remarry. What mattered most to Daphne was family and her Greek heritage. She regularly visited her beloved parents, sister, and many relatives in Greece and France. She was a devoted and proud mother. Her home was full to the brim with photographs of her ancestors and extended family. She loved adventure and travel, and she maintained lasting friendships with people all over the world. She was a marvelously accomplished cook, a superb hostess of lively parties, artistically talented and highly skilled at sewing clothes, embroidery and crochet. She was a woman of great energy, who avidly enjoyed going to the beach, walking and driving, going to so many films, concerts, and art museums. Daphne supported numerous humanitarian causes and engaged in activism and political work to improve her local community and support peace in the world. She spoke five languages - Greek, English, Arabic, French, and Italian -- and retained an interest in learning about and experiencing other cultures throughout her life. She was occasionally employed as a translator and a private language tutor. She organized and directed two clubs for people who wanted to converse about the matters of the day in French and Italian. In the last few years she persevered with remarkable determination and high energy through a number of difficult health setbacks - she lived an active life even after experiencing a broken hip, broken pelvis, a stroke, and myelofibrosis. She valued her independence greatly. She is survived by her two daughters Stephanie and Irini, Irini's husband Mahmoud Habboub and their son Aiden, her sister Agnes and her husband Georges Constantine and their two children Philip and Anne-Marie, and a great many other relatives in her extended family.

Daphne Beardman

February 2, 1934 - June 14, 2020