Finding Her Way Back to Texas

By Chloe Allison

Eileen Marie Berk

December 7, 1951-April 3, 2006

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Eileen Berk was born Eileen Marie Roth to parents Lessie Marie and Lawrence John Roth in Norfolk, Virginia on December 7, 1951. Her parents had recently married on March 14, 1951 and the couple already had one daughter together, Sarah.[1] Sarah was also born in Norfolk on November 19, 1946.[2] Lawrence was a member of the United States Navy and served his country through three conflicts; World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[3] The military career of her father meant that Eileen traveled a great deal during her childhood. When she was just ten months old, Eileen was recorded as having arrived in New York from Panama with her mother and sister Sarah.[4] Stateside, the Roth family lived in cities where there were naval bases. The family was recorded residing in Newport, Rhode Island in 1955 and in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1959.[5] It was while the family was living in Texas that Eileen’s younger sister, Debra, was born.[6] Eileen graduated from high school around the time her younger sister was born and decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and enlist in the United States Navy.

Eileen Roth enlisted in the Navy on March 30, 1973 when she was 21 years old.[7] She served as an enlisted hospital corpsman. Hospital corpsmen work with the United States Navy and Marine Corps as the primary medical caregivers to fleets and Marines. Eileen officially enlisted in the Navy just after the United States stopped sending troops to Vietnam, so she was most likely not deployed there. It was during this time that Eileen married Billy Joe Floyd in Montgomery, Texas. The couple married on April 23, 1979 when Eileen was 26 and Billy was 24.[8] The marriage between Eileen and Billy Joe lasted just over four years. The couple divorced on June 10, 1983 while living in San Diego and the couple had no children.[9] Eileen was still enlisted in the Navy during that time and was most likely stationed in San Diego, the second largest Surface Ship base of the United States Navy.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton [18]

Just one year after she divorced Billy Joe Floyd, Eileen Roth got married once again. She married Peter J. Beem in Nueces, Texas on August 25, 1984.[10] The pair stayed together throughout Eileen’s service in the Navy. In 1987, the couple was living in Oceanside, California—located just south of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.[11] Oceanside is the perfect place for a young Navy corpsman to be living as it is near a Marine hospital. Eileen continued to serve in the Navy during the Gulf War, Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War lasted about 6 months, from August 1990 until February 1991. The United States had troops on the ground in the Middle East throughout the short war. There is no record that Eileen was sent to the Middle East to serve as a corpsman for the combat troops, but she was still an active-duty member of the Navy during that time.

Eileen Beem was released from the United States Navy on January 31, 1993 after 20 years of active-duty service as a Navy Corpsman.[12] She and her husband Peter divorced just before that on January 14, 1993 in Tarrant, Texas—the pair did not have any children together.[13] Peter Beem returned to California to live in Palm Springs while Eileen went back to Texas.[14] It seems that Eileen was always going back to Texas. She was recorded to be living in Arlington, Texas in 1993.[15] Eileen Beem was back to being Eileen Roth, at least until her final marriage in 1996. The third, and final, Texas marriage for Eileen Roth was to Timothy Douglas Berk in Willis, Texas.[16] Eileen and Timothy married on June 20, 1996 and remained in Willis, Texas throughout the year.

Neither Eileen nor her husband Timothy show up on any official documents in an archive in the last ten years of Eileen’s life. Eileen Marie Berk passed away due to natural causes on April 3, 2006.[17] Eileen was just 54 years old when she passed. A Texas girl through and through, Eileen spent twenty years in the United States Navy working as a corpsman. The three marriages Eileen had throughout her life helped her find who she was and kept her returning to Texas. Eileen is buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

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Footnotes ↓

[1] “Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Lawrence John Roth, Norfolk, Virginia.

[2] “Virginia, Birth Records, 1912-2016, Delayed Birth Records, 1854-1911,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Sarah Francis Roth, Norfolk, Virginia.

[3] “U.S. Veterans’ Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Lawrence John Roth, Houston National Cemetery, Houston, Texas.

[4] “New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820-1957,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen M Roth, New York, New York.

[5] “U.S. City Directories, 1822-995,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Lawrence J Roth, Newport, Rhode Island. “U.S. City Directories, 1822-995,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Lawrence J Roth, Corpus Christi, Texas.

[6] “Texas, Birth Records, 1903-1997,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Debra Jean Roth, Nueces County, Texas.

[7] “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen Roth, 2006.

[8] “Texas, Marriage Index, 1824-2014,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Billy Floyd, Montgomery, Texas.

[9] “California, Divorce Index, 1966-1984,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen M. Floyd, San Diego, California, 1983.

[10] “Texas, Marriage Index, 1824-2014,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed October 19, 2019), entry for Eileen M Roth, Nueces, Texas, 1984.

[11] “U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed October 19, 2019), entry for Peter J Beem, Oceanside, California.

[12] “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen Roth, 2006.

[13] “Texas, Divorce Index, 1968-2014,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed October 19, 2019), entry for Eileen M. Beem, Tarrant, California, 1993.

[14] “U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed October 19, 2019), entry for Peter J Beem, Palm Springs, California.

[15] “U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed October 19, 2019), entry for Eileen M Beem, Arlington, Texas, 1993.

[16] “Texas, Select County Marriage Records, 1837-2015,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen Marie Roth, Montgomery, Texas, 1996.

[17] “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” database, ancestry.com, (accessed September 9, 2019), entry for Eileen Roth, 2006.

[18] "Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton," U.S. Marine Corps, Retrieved from: https://www.pendleton.marines.mil/Staff-Agencies/Environmental-Security/, (accessed May 2, 2020).

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