Beth Chapman's Memorial Service: Everything To Know
Beth Chapman will be laid to rest in a final memorial service on Saturday, and fans are invited to [...]
The Service
July 13, 2019 -
— Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) July 1, 2019
Heritage Christian Center
14401 E. Exposition Avenue
Aurora, Colorado 80012 - Doors open at 1:00 Service starts at 2:00 pic.twitter.com/Htw4SKxDDl
Chapman's service will be held at the Heritage Christian Center in Aurora, Colorado on Saturday afternoon. Doors open for the event at 1 p.m. PT, and the service itself starts at 2 p.m. It is expected to run for about two hours.
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The memorial will take place at the Heritage Christian Center, a non-denominational "megachurch" in Aurora, Colorado, not far from Denver. The church is located at 14401 E. Exposition Avenue.
The Heritage Christian Center was founded in 1985, when Chapman was still a teenager. Her history with the church is unclear, but she did grow up in Denver. Chapman worked as a waitress, a singer and a clerk, with interests in gymnastics and ice skating as well. She moved to Honolulu with Chapman as a young woman.
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For those that cannot be there in person, Chapman's memorial service will be livestreamed online through WGN America. The network is producing Duane "Dog" Chapman's new upcoming reality show, Dog's Most Wanted, and has made a few tributes to Beth Chapman of its own.
The livestream can be viewed on WGN's website or its Facebook page. The broadcast will start at 1 p.m. PT, which is 4 p.m. on the east coast. It is expected to go for about two hours.
The Heritage Christian Center livestreams some of its services as well, although it is not clear if the church's website will feature this particular memorial.
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Chapman's family will be in attendance for the funeral. Her husband will be there, of course, as will her children, grandchildren and step children. Chapman married Duane in 2006, having been together for years before that. Duane adopted Chapman's daughter, Cecily, and their two families merged seamlessly.
"Baby Lyssa" Chapman has been posting tributes to her step-mother on Instagram all week. On Thursday, she revealed that she was in Colorado for the memorial.
"We're here Mom," she wrote.
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Chapman has gotten plenty of long eulogies and goodbyes on social media. Along with the announcement of her memorial service, she got a new obituary from WGN, with details about her early life that many fans had not known before.
"Beth Chapman was born Alice Elizabeth Smith in Denver, CO on October 29, 1967. Her father was Garry Smith, who played baseball for the Kansas City Athletics, a major league team that moved to Oakland, CA in 1968. She was 18 when she first met Duane 'Dog' Chapman. The two dated for 16 years before they married in 2006," the obituary read.
"Beth Chapman starred in a hit television series and became a household name and most recently she co-starred alongside her husband in Dog's Most Wanted which will air on WGN America later this year," it went on.
"In addition to her husband, Ms. Chapman is survived by 10 children and stepchildren, many grandchildren and one great-grandchild," the obituary concluded.
prevnextBootleg Merchandise
Please report ALL of these shirts for Beth’s memorial. They are not from us. Only authorized merch is on https://t.co/r7chHmw9d9
— Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) June 29, 2019
In the wake of Beth Chapman's passing, her family has been plagued by counterfeit merchandise attempting to capitalize on her death. Duane has posted about these issues a few times on Twitter, urging fans not to spend their money on these shirts and other trinkets and directing them to the family's own online store instead.
"Any T-shirts with Beth's likeness not from https://thebountystore.com [are] not authorized," he wrote. "Please do not buy these T-shirts, please report these ads and tag Bonnie if you see them."
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Chapman was given a memorial service on the beach in Waikiki, Hawaii on Saturday, June 29, just a few days after her passing. The ceremony was open to the public, so fans joined in with friends and family for a day filled with both Christian and Hawaiian traditional goodbyes.
"One of the last things she said [was], 'This is a test of my faith.' She had faith and then that was it," Chapman told reporters at the time. "... There's things you go through when you're dying, like steps. Like you do when you lose someone. You get mad at them and then you go through all these steps. Well, the last step when you're dying is to accept it. And she said to me the other day, 'Honey, that last step I ain't taking.' Go Bethy."
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Finally, Chapman has gotten her fair share of kind words online, where fans are mourning right along with her family. Viewers have left comments on Chapman's family's posts and put up some of their own to memorialize the reality TV matriarch.
"I never had the opportunity to know you personally Beth but I want to thank you for being such a strong woman with a lot of faith in ur beliefs," one user shared in a lengthy tribute. "You showed me what it was like to be courageous and fight our illnesses. I will never forget your words you would rather have quality of life rather than quantity. And since hearing those words out of your mouth I have lived each day to the fullest as I possibly can. And there's going to be more days where I can do a lot more or a lot less but either way I'm going to fill them with as much happiness and love as possible. God bless you Beth and your entire family [prayer hand emojis]... Rest in Heaven."
Chapman's memorial begins at 1 p.m. PT on Saturday at the Heritage Christian Center in Aurora, Colorado.
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