Shirley Ann Beck, 81
Shirley Ann Beck, age 81 of New Hampton, died Thursday, October 3, 2019, at the New Hampton Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, October 7, 2019, at Holy Family Parish, New Hampton with Rev. Brian Dellaert officiating.
Interment will be at St. Mary’s Cemetery, New Hampton with Audra Rinard, Ashley Clark, Jaydon Stover, Clint Mohring, Toni Nelson, Cody Johnston, Kinsley Hackman, Kayme Hackman, Kallie Hackman, Kourtney Hackman, Kenlyn Hackman, Justein Powell, Jordi Beckman and Miranda Ledbeter serving as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers are Nick Rinard, Jason Clark, Kurt Nelson, Danni Johnston, Johnathan Beckman, Colten Ledbeter, Brandon Matthias, and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas.
Friends may greet the family from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. Sunday, October 6, 2019, at the Hugeback Johnson Funeral Home and Crematory in New Hampton. Further visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday.
Shirley was born on March 30, 1938, in New Hampton to Milo “Mike” and Fran (Kayser) Ryder, and she was the couple’s middle child, a fact that she never let you forget.
Her parents owned and operated the Corner Grocery Store in New Hampton, and Shirley, like her sisters, worked at the store as a young girl. She often said that hauling those sugar sacks led to her battles with arthritis in later years, but she loved her childhood, her parents and her sisters.
She graduated from St. Mary’s Catholic School and then continued her studies at New Hampton High School, receiving her diploma with the Class of 1956.
Years before, though, when she was in seventh grade and Dale Beck was a freshman, she rode her bike past Dale, who told his pals that “some day, that’s going to be my girl.”
She was, and on May 19, 1956, five days before she graduated from high school, the couple was married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church so that Shirley could go to Mississippi with her new husband, who was serving in the U.S. Air Force. They were also stationed in Tuscon, Arizona, before Dale was honorably discharged and the couple moved back to Iowa, where they settled in Nashua.
While Dale worked at Hrydrotile, Shirley was a stay-at-home mother to their first two daughters — Cindy and Dee — and she was also a second mom to scores of “Bulldogs.” Outside the home, she was heavily involved at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, where she served as a religious education teacher for four years and served as the church’s director of religious education for 11 more.
She and Dale were also avid curlers at the old rink in Nashua, and they traveled to bonspiels in both Iowa and Minnesota, winning trophies and making new friends.
The couple liked to say that their 25th anniversary gift was the birth of a third daughter, Cassie, and in 1984, the Becks moved to a farm they had purchased a few years earlier near the Beck Family Farm. For a “city girl” like Shirley, living in the country took a little getting used to, but like she did for Cindy and Dee, Shirley was Cassie’s No. 1 supporter, cheering her on and supporting her in every school activity. She was also a second mom to scores of “Chickasaws.”
Shirley and Dale also became travelers after he retired from New Hampton Metal Fab. Family members honored them on their anniversary with a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands, and they also took Chickasaw Event Center bus trips to Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Dale passed away in 2009, and her husband’s death hit Shirley hard, but she remained active — supporting the Chickasaws and making the most of her time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In so many ways, she was just one of the kids, playing games, laughing and joking with them.
She could often be found chatting and having coffee with her friends at McDonald’s.
In New Hampton, she was a member of St. Mary’s Church and then Holy Family Parish. She volunteered countless hours with the Giving Tree program and the Friends of MercyOne, and the Hospital Auxiliary. She was proud of the fact that she was a 60-year member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas.
Her family and faith were everything to Shirley, and she will be dearly missed by her daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, other family members, friends and all those Bulldogs and Chickasaws through the years.
Shirley is survived by three daughters, Cindy (Galen) Stover of Riceville, IA, Dee (Doug) Powell of Nashua, IA, Cassie (Jacob) Hackman of New Hampton, IA; fourteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren; brother-in-law, Kenny (Rose) Diesburg of Murfreesboro, TN; sister-in-law, Dorothy Baethke of Riceville, IA; along with several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Dale in 2009; two sisters, Carole (Gerald) McGrath, Eleanor Diesburg; two brothers-in-law, Orville Baethke and Don Beck.
