Freda M. Beck
Freda (Mosier) Beck, 91, passed away on Feb. 15 in hospice care at Mercy Hospital after suffering a stroke a week earlier.
A former Treasurer of the Marshfield School Board and the bookkeeper/co-owner of Beck's Milkyway Dairy, she retired at age 87 from her nearly 30-year tenure (Reagan through Obama) as an absentee-ballot elections judge at the courthouse. She was proud that her bipartisan team of judges used "common sense" and never had an irreconcilable disagreement over hanging chads or anything else, even though weather and equipment malfunctions did at times leave them locked in the courthouse into the early morning and even all night with cots.
Freda was born on Nov. 5, 1928 in the Texarkana area of Arkansas where she spent her childhood. Her father was Roy Mosier, a railroad man who died in a railyard accident when Freda was 11 years old. Her mother was Thelma (Cannady) Holmgren (who had lost her own father in a mining accident in Webb City, Missouri when she was still an infant). Thelma remarried to Horace Kennedy who was a teacher and singing-school man, inserting a great deal of music into Freda's and her children's lives. Freda was salutatorian of her high school where she specialized in bookkeeping and business studies.
Freda arrived in Marshfield in 1947, a teenage bride of Lt. Warren Beck of Black Oak who had recently returned home after a year with MacArthur's occupation forces in Japan. They immediately went to work creating and running the door-to-door and store-to-store milk business that continued into the 1960s -- while also adding four children to the household.
Like so many of her peers, she maintained a seemingly full-time volunteer schedule of nurturing the children of Marshfield as a leader of Cub Scouts and Brownies, as a school home-room mother, active band and choir parent, and in assisting in numerous capacities with the children of Marshfield First Baptist. From 1955 to 1965, she was the church's superintendent of Vacation Bible School. In later decades, she mentored teenage girls in special Bible studies.
Known for her gentle nature, Freda was nonetheless a ferocious competitor at dominoes and other games. And she did brag about breaking some glass ceilings; she claimed that she and Loreen Morrison were the first women to serve on the church's finance committee and on the pastor search committee.
From 1966 to 1986 on the support staff of the Superintendent of Marshfield Schools, she finally was paid for her labors.
After Warren's death in 2004, Freda was pleased to be able to remain active and live in her home until a few days before her 91st birthday when a stroke left her needing to live at Webco Manor. For the last three months, she enjoyed the expert therapy and warm compassion of the Webco staff.
Freda is survived by her sister, Ellen (Kennedy) Marsh of Prescott, Ark.; by four children, Roy Beck of Arlington, Va., Charlotte Lieser of Enid, Okla., Vicki Beck of Los Angeles, Calif., and Dennis Beck of Simi Valley, Calif.; by seven grandchildren, Jeremy Beck (N.J.), Megan Neal (Okla.) Shawn Rockey (Ariz.), Andrew Beck (N.C.), Derek Lieser (Okla.) Jared Lieser (Okla.), and Landon Beck (Calif.); and by 15 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her brother Jack Mosier (Texas) and sister Betty Watkins (Ga.).
A celebration of life service will be at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, in Fraker Funeral Home, with interment following in Marshfield Cemetery. Visitation will be from 6-7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Webco Manor Memorial Fund and First Baptist Mission Trip Fund.