Helen Beardsley; Mother of 20 Was Movie Subject

Helen Eileen Beardsley, a mother of 20 whose unusual family story was made into a 1968 movie starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, has died. She was 70.

Beardsley died Wednesday after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for 10 years.

Beardsley, who gave birth to 10 of the 20 offspring, wrote a book about her brood called “Who Gets the Drumsticks?” It was later made into the movie “Yours, Mine and Ours.”

“The movie was very Hollywood. Our family was a normal Navy family,” daughter Jean Murphy said. “My mother wrote the original script, but it was too boring, so Lucille Ball wrote a funny script.”

The movie also featured child stars who grew up to become successful actors, including Morgan Brittany.

Motion picture historian Leonard Maltin gave the film high marks in his “2000 Movie and Video Guide,” commenting: “For once, a wholesome family picture with intelligent scripting . . . a warm, well-made comedy.”

Born Helen Eileen Brandmeir in Seattle, she married Lt. Richard North in 1949. The couple had eight children before North died in 1960.

A year later, the widow married Navy Chief Warrant Officer Francis Beardsley, a widower with 10 children. In 1963, her husband adopted her eight children, which at that time was the largest adoption ever recorded in California. The Beardsleys also had two children of their own.

Beardsley was named Mother of the Year by the National Campfire Girls in 1963 and was a member of the state’s Advisory Commission on the Status of Women.

In 1973, she took a job at Carmel Community Hospital and later worked as a cardiovascular technologist at a Fresno hospital.

“My mother was very much the lady. She was very traditional, with a Catholic upbringing,” Murphy said. “She was very much of a homemaker, but also very much of a pioneer for women.”

Beardsley is survived by her husband and 20 children, 44 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial Mass is scheduled today in Santa Rosa.