Charles"Chuck" Edwin Beany

Charles “Chuck” Edwin Beany (also known as “Ramrod and “Chief”), age 88, left the Earth peacefully while resting at home in Long Beach, MS, on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.

Born on July 31, 1937, in Columbus, OH, Chuck was preceded in death by his parents, Geraldine Edith Reed and Roger Adair Beany and his sister, Carol Elaine Beany.

After graduating from Linden-McKinley High School in Columbus, OH, Chuck joined the U.S. Marines, but soon decided to change his enlistment to the U.S. Navy, where he served on the CV-60 supercarrier USS Saratoga as a flight engineer with the VFA-31 “Felix” Strike Fighter Squadron 31, maintaining the McDonnell F3H Demon jet fighter. Chuck became known as the “Demon Doc”.

After completing his military enlistment, Chuck entered the aerospace industry, living between Picayune, MS, Columbus, OH, Lompoc, CA, and the MS Gulf Coast. Chuck would continue his career between Stennis Space Center, MS and Vanderberg AFB, where he was a quality control engineer during the apollo Project for the second-stage J-2 engine in the Saturn V rocket that blasted Americans to the Moon. He completed his career by contributing to the testing of the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engine , in which he and his colleagues worked to produce the safest rocket engine ever developed (and that, in 2026, is taking humans to the Moon again and beyond).

In his retirement, Chuck loved to attend the Stennis “Old Timers” breakfasts, reunions of the USS Saratoga he served on, and collected and operated model trains.

As a husband and father, Chuck was a gentle yet diligent presence; devoted and loving. He was fascinated by genealogy in his free time, and as he appreciated travel throughout his life, Chuck fulfilled his dream of seeing his “homeland”, Ireland, and loved listening to the music if the countries he had visited.

Survived by his loving and devoted wife of 44 years, Anaise Cecelia Morrison Beany, he leaves his daughters, Kristen Elaine Beany Heard (Jacksonville, FL) and Karla Jane Venos (Kannapolis, NC); son, Charles Adair Morrison Beany (New Orleans, LA); grandchildren, Patrick Hogue, Samuel Hogue, Zachary Venos, and Riley Venos; great-grandchildren, Opal, Nash, and Maggie Hogue; and his steadfast feline guardcat, BB Beany.

Charles Edwin Beany’s cremains will be buried in October at Biloxi National Cemetery with military honors by the U.S. Navy.

In lieu of flowers, the surviving family requests donations in his memory to the Wounded Warrior Project, 4899 Belfort Road, Suite 300, Jacksonville, FL 32256 or a charity of your choice.

Additionally, the family would like to thank the VA caregivers for making Chuck comfortable in the last stages of his life (Nicole Walker and Hidasha Washington) and Notre Dame Hospice , provided by Dr. Paul Matherne.

Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home, 15th Street, Gulfport, is honored to serve the family of Charles “Chuck” Edwin Beany.