Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Three of Frank Beamer's siblings — (from left) Betty Semones, Billie Jean Hill and Barnett Beamer, who's hugging his wife, Bonnie — cheer after Virginia Tech scores a touchdown in the game against Maryland in Lane Stadium earlier this month.

Courtesy of the Beamer family

Raymond and Herma Beamer were married in the late '30s and had four children.

The Beamer siblings, in photo above and below: Standing is Barnett Beamer. Sitting (from left) is Frank Beamer, Betty Beamer Semones and Billie Jean Beamer Hill.

Courtesy of the Beamer family

Frank Beamer spent three years in the hospital after he was burned at age 7. "The nurses all loved Frank," his sister Betty says.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Billie Jean was the firstborn.

She came squalling into the world on Oct. 8, 1939, two years after Herma Allen and Raymond Beamer married.

The children arriving later would bequeath a number of titles to their big sister. Billie Jean was the smart one, the perfectionist, the scholar, graduating as valedictorian of her senior class at Hillsville High School.

Barnett followed his sister's entrance on July 29, 1941.

Like Billie Jean, he was born at home in a white Cape Cod house overlooking the family's Fancy Gap farm. Here hams were hung for curing in a granary that stored feed for the livestock. There was also a rusty-roofed barn where dairy cows were milked twice a day, 365 days a year.

Barnett would soon be known as the worker, the responsible one, the tough boy who protected his sisters.

"I was the one that kept the rooster from flogging the girls when they went to milk the cows," the now 67-year-old Barnett recalled.

"He was brave," attested Billie Jean, now 69.

The hospital in nearby Mount Airy, N.C., was the place that welcomed Betty on April 1, 1945.

Betty was kind and good, a farm girl with a special affinity for animals of every kind. Her older brother and sister called her "the sweet one."

A year and a half later, another trip to Mount Airy presented a fourth child.

On Oct. 18, 1946, Billie Jean, Barnett and Betty said hello to their little brother, the boy named Frank.

It wasn't that their parents ran out of Bs. This youngest son was named in honor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only U.S. president to be elected to four terms in office.

Inevitably, Frank was dubbed the "baby" of the family.

And soon, his sisters and brother concluded that he was the spoiled one.

"He decided very young that farming wasn't for him," Betty, now 63, said.

"He figured out how to get out of doing things," Barnett added.

"We all spoiled Frank," Billie Jean concluded, "because we felt for him."

Still, the siblings agree, it was Frank who really united their family.

They rallied together when Frank took over as Virginia Tech's head football coach in 1987 and proceeded to build a mediocre football program into one that captured 15 consecutive bowl bids.

They haven't missed any of those bowl games -- or regular season games, either. Indeed, they've supported their little brother from the day he was born.

Six decades have passed, and the Beamer bunch is as close as ever.

Fire

"I first started getting spoiled when I was burned at the age of 7," the coach, now 62, explained. "After that, they all said I was treated special, and I probably was."

On a warm June day in 1953, Frank and Barnett were cleaning out the garage, carrying arms full of trash to a barrel where they had a fire going.

The boys had set a half-gallon jug of gasoline outside the garage to get it out of their way as they did their cleaning.

"Somehow," Barnett said, "the gas got knocked over. The can was rolling toward the garage."

Barnett, who was 12 at the time, still remembers seeing his little brother kick the can to keep it from hitting the garage. Instead, the gasoline inside sloshed out, burning Frank severely on his shoulder, neck and face.

For the next three years, Frank spent most of his time in the hospital.

"I was in the hospital from age 7 until age 11," he said, explaining that he had more than 30 operations to repair the damage from the third-degree burns he suffered.

Back in 1953, there were no burn rehabilitation centers in the area, so hospitalization was the only option.

Billie Jean, Barnett and Betty have memories of visiting their brother in the Pulaski hospital where he was sent for treatment.

"He knew everybody in the hospital and what was wrong with them," Barnett said.

"He had a little doctor's bag and he would do rounds with the doctors," Betty added. "The nurses all loved Frank."

Frank spent three full summers in the hospital and had to make trips there several times a week during the school year. The schedule made life difficult for the whole family.

Because they lived on a farm, there was lots of work to be done.

"Daddy worked for the highway department and Mama was at the hospital all the time," recalled Billie Jean, explaining that she and her siblings took on many of the responsibilities for housekeeping, cooking and farming.

When Frank came home, though, it was always like Christmas.

"He got all kinds of gifts and toys in the hospital," Billie Jean said. "We couldn't wait for him to come home so we could play with all the toys."

Finally, after three years of surgeries and treatments, Frank's parents decided their son had had enough pain.

He still bears some scarring on the right side of his neck as a result of the fire, but his injuries did not keep him from becoming an adroit athlete.

Billie Jean and Betty credit Barnett with Frank's athletic accomplishment.

At Hillsville High School, Barnett played football, basketball, baseball and ran track. After the ordeal his little brother had been through in the hospital, he didn't have much hope that Frank would follow in his footsteps.

"I never thought he would be able to play sports," Barnett said. "I worked with him one whole summer just to get him to throw a ball."

Frank went on to become a star quarterback on the high school football field, earning spots on the All-Southern U.S. Team, the All-District Team and the All-State Team. He played basketball for five years in high school and baseball for four.

Both Barnett and Frank attended Virginia Tech after high school, but it was Frank who got to put on a Hokie football uniform. He was the starting cornerback for three years, playing in the 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowls.

"The fact that he was even able to play sports and then to get so good was amazing," Barnett said. "Because of what he went through after the fire, I think his goals and aspirations were a little bit higher than ours."

"Barnett was probably a better football player in high school than Frank was," noted Betty.

"Yes," agreed Billie Jean. "We give Barnett the credit for Frank ever playing."

Water

The first time Barnett ever saw the ocean was with his little brother Frank.

"Frank was like an uncle of ours, Sharrell Allen. This guy was our outlet to the world," Barnett said.

It was Allen who took the Beamer children on their first trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. A graduate of Virginia Tech, he also took them to Hokie football games.

"Uncle Sharrell wasn't married so he just adopted us as his children," Billie Jean said.

On Sundays, the siblings recalled, their father and Allen would drive around picking up young folks around the countryside who wanted to go to Sunday school.

"Back then," Barnett said, "there wasn't a whole lot to do. To get to go anywhere was a real treat."

Like his uncle, Frank became an outgoing sort. Sometimes, his sociability got him into hot water.

"If we ever got in trouble at school, we knew we'd get in trouble at home," Billie Jean said. "Frank is the only one who ever got in trouble on the school bus."

Apparently, the youngest Beamer had joined his pals on a trip to the cornfield behind the one-room Mine Branch School before boarding the bus home.

"The kids had stuck corn cobs in their pockets," Barnett recalled. "They started shelling that corn and, before long, corn was flying all over that school bus. Pretty soon, everybody was pointing at Frank."

Ironically, it was Barnett who got called into the principal's office at Hillsville High.

"Does your daddy know about this?" the principal grilled.

"Yes," Barnett answered in defense of his little brother. "He told Frank that he didn't need to be bringing corn home, that we had plenty of corn."

In addition to going to school and church, the Beamer family did make time for ball games.

On Thanksgiving Day, it was a tradition to travel to Roanoke for the annual VPI-VMI match. And the Beamer family was always in the stands when Barnett or Frank played a game at Hillsville High.

"Dad was very supportive of playing sports," Barnett said. "He saw us doing things he couldn't do."

"The next day at breakfast," groaned Betty, "we'd have another coaching session."

As Frank progressed in sports -- playing at Virginia Tech and then coaching at Radford High School, the University of Maryland, the Citadel, Murray State University and, finally, coming full circle back to Virginia Tech -- his family cheered him on.

But Barnett admits that he questioned his brother's sanity when he was named Hokies head coach in 1986 and immediately started talking about bowl bids and national rankings.

After all, in the hundred years before, the team had gotten only invitations to six bowl games.

"I said, 'My God, Frank, what are you saying? These people just want you to win six or seven games a year,' " Barnett recalled.

Barnett and the rest of the Beamer bunch couldn't believe it when their brother built teams that were ranked year after year, winning three Big East championships and two Atlantic Coast Conference championships.

They couldn't believe it when he was named Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year in 2004, his first year competing in the league.

They couldn't believe it when they watched their brother get doused with ice water from the Gatorade thermos game after game.

"He has helped put Tech on the map," Betty said.

"We are just really proud of what he has accomplished," added Billie Jean. "But he's always just Frank."

Salt of the Earth

In the Beamer household, it was understood that anyone bearing the family name would go to college.

"Going to college was expected of us from the day we were born," Billie Jean said.

Billie Jean attended Radford College, married Henry Hill, had two children -- a girl and a boy -- and taught elementary school for 34 years. Her husband died in 1996, just six months after her father's death.

Betty also graduated from Radford College, married Dennis Semones, taught elementary school and raised three boys. One of them, Brandon Semones, played football for his Uncle Frank at Virginia Tech, leading the team in tackles in 1996.

But, she noted, her son didn't get any special treatment because of that. The standout linebacker once got chewed out by his uncle/coach for tackling the quarterback during a practice session.

Both women now live in Christiansburg and are frequently seen walking laps on the track at the Christiansburg Recreation Center, where they exercise together.

Barnett got his degree in business administration from Tech and, like his father, went to work for the Virginia Department of Transportation. He retired from the Salem office in 2004 after 39 years. He and his wife, Bonnie Banks, had three girls, including a set of twins that arrived on Nov. 4, 1972, after interrupting the game between Tech and Southern Mississippi.

"We were sitting there in the stands," Barnett said. "Her due date was Dec. 15. She said, 'I can't believe it. I can't believe it.' I said, 'Bonnie, what is it?' I was concentrating on the ball game. She said, 'I think my water broke.' "

A couple hours later, he said, the twins announced themselves at Roanoke's Community Hospital.

Frank, of course, also graduated from Tech, married Cheryl Oakley, had son Shane Beamer and daughter Casey Beamer.

He and his siblings lost their mother in 2004, the same year he was named ACC coach of the year.

"One of the things my mother was most proud of was that her four children graduated from college and her 10 grandchildren graduated from college," Barnett said.

Herma Beamer was also very proud of her youngest son, the boy she once sat with in the hospital.

When she spotted Tech President Charles Steger at a ball game several years ago, her daughters said she quickly and exultantly introduced herself.

"President Steger," she crowed, "I'm Herma Beamer. Frank's mother."

Billie Jean, Barnett and Betty quietly carry on their mother's sense of pride.

Whether the Hokies are winning or losing, they support the team and their brother. This year, with a couple of early-season losses, it's been hard to listen to fair-weather fans who don't share their confidence in the coach.

They have learned that a sense of loyalty -- and a sense of humor -- helps.

"We offer to help Frank with coaching," Betty said.

"We have been amazed that he hasn't called us," echoed Billie Jean. "I guess he's got enough Monday morning quarterbacks that he doesn't need us."

Although he's so busy during the football season that he doesn't often get to see his brother and sisters, the coach considers them the salt of the Earth.

"They are just good people," he said. "They are caring people. Family people. I think our mother went the extra mile to make sure the family stayed together, got together, and they have always been people I knew I could rely on."

But while Billie Jean, Barnett and Betty are glad their younger brother feels he can rely on them, they know he no longer has to.

"He's not little Frank anymore," Billie Jean said.

Added Barnett: "He's a big boy now. He can take care of himself."