Beverly St. John was a Cumberland Presbyterian elder. She served as the denomination's first female moderator of the General Assembly in 1988. The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination was the first Presbyterian body to ordain women as clergy beginning with Louisa Woosley in 1889.

St. John also authored a collection of essays for parents of small children, "As the Twig is Bent," in the mid-1960s, and co-authored a book of poetry with Rev. James Knight, "The Prophet is a Snow Man," in 1986, and co-authored with Gary A Webb, a book about her father, "The Life and Work of Ernest A. Pickup," in 2009.

In 1977 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree by Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee. In May 2008 at the age of 89 she was awarded the first honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary.