
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993                   TAG: 9306140202
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

BEVERLY CHAPMAN, DISABLED ADVOCATE, DIES AT AGE 44

Beverly Chapman, a champion of rights for the disabled, died in her sleep early Saturday at a motel in Yarmouth, Mass. The Orlando-based activist was 44.

Police said an attendant who was traveling with Chapman called paramedics to the Cape Point Motel at 5:45 a.m. Chapman was dead when they arrived. Chapman, who grew up in Cape Cod, Mass., suffered from a severe form of muscular dystrophy. The cause of death has not been determined.

"None of us expected it, although certainly she was fragile," said Melanie Gagnier, Chapman's sister. Gagnier was at her sister's Orlando office Saturday morning, where faxes and letters had been piling up during Chapman's East Coast business trip. "She certainly had a lot more to do."

For the past 20 years, Chapman has become nationally known as an advocate for better access for the disabled. She fought passionately for mainstreaming of the disabled through speeches and letters. The column she wrote for the Orlando Sentinel was distributed nationally through the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service.

by CNB