Barbara Ellen Cline

Barbara Ellen (Beveridge) Cline of Mattawan, Michigan, died on April 30, 2024, at the age of 82. Barbara was born in Kalamazoo on November 25, 1941, to the late Robert and Winifred (Ingersoll) Beveridge.

Barb spent her first 18 years in Kalamazoo, graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1959. Her family enjoyed spending their summers at their cottage on the island at Pine Lake, hanging out with her friends, and participating in school activities, like cheerleading and basketball. After graduation, she attended Michigan State University. She eventually moved to Southern California with a few of her friends, where she settled down in Orange County to raise her three children, Rob, Heidi, and Nicole, with her then-husband Gene Cline. Barb enjoyed spending time with her neighbors, sewing, cooking, gardening, and reading. She also loved taking her children to the beach and served as both a den mother for the Boy Scouts and as a Girl Scout leader. Barb and Gene opened a bar in Mission Viejo in 1977 named Mugs Away, which is still open today. She enjoyed cooking and serving the bar patrons who became her friends. After they sold the bar, she began working at Pacific Bell as a repair dispatcher, which she enjoyed.

After living in Southern California for about 30 years, Barb longed to return to Kalamazoo to be closer to her sisters. She had a dream to buy an old house and refurbish it, which she did at her Egleston Avenue home. She loved the old neighborhoods and took pride in her big yellow house. After she “finished” that house, Barb and her daughter, Nicole, decided they wanted to live near some water, and built a house on a small pond in Mattawan. She enjoyed birdwatching on their pond, and even had her own ducks that she loved. She was always an animal lover, who always had a cat or two around to keep her company. She really missed her beloved dogs, Buster and Archie, after they died, and loved spending time with her granddogs, Jango and Trixie.

Barb loved to work with her hands, and spent many hours gardening, knitting, crocheting, painting, sewing, and quilting. She was an excellent cook, and loved to have her family and friends over for a shared meal. She loved to shop, and enjoyed refinishing furniture, putting her spin on the pieces she picked up. She was an avid reader, and up until recently, was always reading a book or three! She was known to become very anxious if she didn’t have a book to read.

Spring was Barb’s favorite season. She loved to see the daffodils, tulips, and crocus pop through the ground after a long winter. Her favorite flower was the lilac, and every year she would bring a bouquet into her home to enjoy the beauty and aroma. She even kept gardening clippers in her car, and would stop behind businesses that had huge lilac bushes and “steal” a few blooms. 

Barb loved living closer to her extended family and spending time with them. “Aunt Barb” was especially fond of her many nieces and nephews, and really appreciated the relationship she had with them. Barb was the youngest of the four “Beveridge Girls”, so she felt like her nieces and nephews were like brothers and sisters. She also enjoyed spending time with her life-long friends after moving back to the Kalamazoo area. 

Barbara is survived by her children, Robert Cline, Nicole (Adam) Keller, Heidi (Mike) Pyne, and brother-in-law, Robert Duncan; her grandchildren, Rachel and Robert Cline, Brad and Nick Pyne, and Zack Cline. 

Barbara was preceded in death by her parents, Bob and Wink; her sister, Joan Duncan, her sister, Janet, and brother-in-law, Jim Poulston, and her sister, Connie, and brother-in-law, Earl Gray.