Lenore Beauchamp loved her hometown of Bedford, Iowa, and she spent most of her life there. She moved to Tulsa in her later years, perhaps to be geographically closer to her sister, Bertha, and she developed a fondness for The University of Tulsa, much to the benefit of the TU community.

Lenore was born in Bedford in 1884 to parents Joseph and Melissa Beauchamp. She was close to her siblings, brother H. E. and sister Bertha, and she greatly valued her family. Lenore worked as a bookkeeper in Bedford, and in her free time, she pursued her hobbies of reading, often checking out books from the local Bedford Public Library, and spending time outside, particularly at Bedford’s Lake of Three Fires State Park.

Lenore was generous with her financial resources, and when she passed away in Tulsa in 1977 at the age of 93, she made a number of charitable bequests, honoring her brother H. E. Beauchamp with a gift to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and her sister Bertha Beauchamp Lauer, also a TU donor, with a gift to The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Lenore also left funds for the Oklahoma League for the Blind and for PEO Sisterhood, a philanthropic women’s organization based in Des Moines, Iowa, to use on behalf of its Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri.

Lenore provided a significant endowment for TU, which continues to provide resources for students attending the university today. Lenore clearly enjoyed investing in her community, wherever that may have been during each stage of her life, benefiting others and providing the lasting gift of an excellent education.