Rosellen Kern

Rosellen Kern was the younger sister of Beany's onetime boyfriend, Andy, and she was also a friend of Beany's. She walked with crutches due to polio and could not fulfill her dream of attending Harkness High School with the gang due to its lack of accessibility. (Weber's books were written well before the Americans With Disabilities Act!)

Her death after a winter fall in "A Bright Star Falls" is one of the saddest moments in the Beany Malone series. Brother Andy, furious at the Marines for not giving him leave in time for him to come back while she was still alive (he believed he alone could somehow coax her to survive), goes AWOL and takes out his anger working as a lumberjack for a while, but eventually returns to the world of his family and friends.

From Image Cascade:

With a warm and giving heart, Rosellen was the soft spot in the hearts of both her brother Andy as well as the tough Captain Kern (her father). Her tinkling laughter and beaming, smiling face lit up any room. Beany thoughts on Rosellen: "...She was fifteen and she seemed both younger and older. She had both the young delight of a child of five, the sober gravity of a woman of fifty."