Beth Wilkes: Wheeling’s Quiet Kindness Hero
In 1968 a young lady named Beth Wilkes boarded a bus from Buffalo, New York destined for Wheeling, West Virginia a city she would call home for the next 50 plus years. Beth, a recent graduate of Nazareth College in Rochester and daughter of pediatrician Dr. Frederick B. Wilkes and nurse Elizabeth M. Wilkes, was sent to Wheeling on assignment through the Americorps’ Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) Program. Beth was a slight, quiet woman, but she had a heart and compassion far greater than anyone else.
Three years prior to her arrival in Wheeling, Beth found herself watching the 1965 March on Selma, Alabama which was broadcast around the country. This moment, which changed the trajectory of our country and changed the Civil Rights movement, also changed Beth Wilkes. On her breaks from college, she traveled to Selma where she regularly volunteered within the local community, specifically teaching African-American nursing s