Gerald E. Beckel

Ger­ald Emmett Beckel, age 92, of Card­ing­ton and Kingston Res­i­dence of Mar­ion, went to be with his Lord and beloved wife on Wednes­day, August 8, 2012.

He was born on Octo­ber 27, 1919, in the log cabin sec­tion of the house built by his great-grandfather, Michael Beckel. The house on Salem Road, West of Card­ing­ton, was to be his home for 90 years of his 92 years of life.

Emmett was the youngest of six chil­dren born to the late Fred and Anna (Har­ruff) Beckel. He grad­u­ated from Card­ing­ton High School with the class of 1938. On April 13, 1941, he mar­ried June Bai­ley, who pre­ceded him in death on Octo­ber 12, 1996. They loved to travel and even after June’s death, Emmett con­tin­ued to travel to his sons and fam­i­lies home where he was able to ful­fill his love of fishing.

Emmett will be deeply missed by his two sons, Leslie (Jerri), of MN, Lon­nie (Andrea), of FL, six grand­chil­dren, Tanya (Brent) Red­field, Brian (Heidi) Beckel, Melissa (Scott) Man­the, Andy Beckel, Todd (Kelli) Beckel, Crys­tal (Tom) Davis, four step-grandchildren, Curt (Dawn) Diehl, Kyle O’Berry, Shanelle O’Neill, Lau­ren O’Neill, 13 great-grandchildren, two step-great grand­chil­dren, one great-great grand­son, two sisters-in-law, Vir­ginia Lef­fler, Gwynn Bai­ley, and many nieces, nephews, and friends.

Every­one will miss his deli­cious award win­ning hick­ory nut pie, which was fea­tured in the August 28th, 2005 edi­tion of the Mar­ion Star. Also to be missed are his other yummy pies, apple, pump­kin, and lemon meringue, and the home­made boxed choco­lates that he and June made.

Emmett was an active and faith­ful mem­ber of Peace Com­mu­nity United Church of Christ where he was a mem­ber of the choir, the Con­sis­tory, and other com­mit­tees. One of his loves at his church was to help the ladies make noo­dles for the annual ice cream social.

Emmett was a full time farmer until 1955 when he went to work at Whirlpool. He retired from there in 1980 but still remained active on the farm with his gar­den­ing, straw­berry and red rasp­berry patches, and his roses. It was a joy to him to share the pro­duce and roses that his Lord blessed him with. It was this love of gar­den­ing that led him to join and be active with the Mar­ion Gar­den Club.

He was always ready to play a game of euchre, even after mov­ing to Kingston, and was a mem­ber of the Waldo Seniors Euchre group.

Emmett’s sense of humor will be dearly missed, espe­cially at fam­ily din­ners when the but­ter is passed and he isn’t there to push it into our thumbs.

In addi­tion to his par­ents and wife, Emmett was pre­ceded in death by broth­ers, Earl, Harold, Vir­gil, Del­mar, and sis­ter, Flo­rence King Cooke, one infant grand­child, one infant great-grandchild, and a nephew, Ralph King, whom Emmett and June gra­ciously and lov­ingly took to live with them when Ralph was 16.

Friends may call on Sun­day, August, 12, 2012 from 1:00–5:00 PM at Gompf Funeral Ser­vice in Card­ing­ton. Funeral ser­vice will be held Mon­day at 11:00 AM at the Peace Com­mu­nity United Church of Christ in Waldo with Pas­tor Joel Fet­ter offi­ci­at­ing. Bur­ial will fol­low in Glen­dale Ceme­tery in Cardington.

Those wish­ing to make a memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tion are asked to con­sider the Peace Com­mu­nity United Church and Mar­ion Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal Hospice.

The fam­ily would like thank the Kingston Staff, Mar­ion Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal Hos­pice, Pas­tor Joel Fet­ter, and all the doc­tors who took won­der­ful care of Emmett. A spe­cial thank you goes to Erin Weyandt from Hos­pice for show­er­ing Emmett with love and com­pas­sion­ate care dur­ing his last year of life.

Con­do­lences may be expressed to the Beckel fam­ily at www.gompffh.com

Posted by Randa Wagner on Aug 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.