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m. 22 Jan 1907
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_PHOTO: Beemer, Margaret Ruth Bordner - Funeral services for Margaret Beemer, age 90, of Bedford, who died Saturday, March 26, 2011 at the Bedford Nursing & Rehab Center were held Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at the Ritchie Funeral Home in Bedford. Visitation was held Wednesday from 3 to 7 with the family greeting friends from 5 to 7 at the funeral home. Interment was held at Washington Cemetery in Gravity. Memorials can be given in Margaret’s name. Memories can be shared with the family at www.ritchiefuneralhome.com under Obituaries. Arrangements were entrusted to the Ritchie Funeral Home of Bedford.Margaret Ruth (Bordner) Beemer was born in Polk Township in Taylor County, Iowa, on October 12, 1920, to Frank Lee Bordner and Ina M. (Atkins) Bordner. A sister Harriet Maxine, born in 1918, had died in infancy. Margaret’s parents had earlier assumed custody of Ina’s niece Berniece Atkins, whom Margaret always regarded as her older sister.Margaret enjoyed tomboyish activities, tagging after her father around the farm, while Berniece stayed closer to Ina and domestic chores. Margaret attended country school in Taylor County, near Siam, until she went to Clarinda Public Schools for ninth grade, where she excelled in mathematics, making an A+ in Algebra I. Margaret graduated from Bedford High School in 1938 with a normal training certificate, she never used.She eloped to marry Elvin Homer Beemer, son of Homer and Grace Beemer, on Christmas Eve, 1938. The couple farmed, combining Elvin’s two cows and Margaret’s five sheep, until they assumed management of a farm produce and feed business in Gravity, Iowa, in September of 1939, near the end of the Great Depression. In December of 1942, Elvin answered the call to serve his country in Company D, 409th Infantry, 103rd Division. Margaret oversaw both home and business while Elvin saw active duty in the Rhineland and Central Europe. He was taken prisoner by the Germans on December 2, 1944, and liberated by the Russians on May 8, 1945. Margaret continued to manage the business until he was honorably discharged in 1945. She met him at the train station with his work clothes, to pick up a load of chickens on their way home. Her determination to restore normalcy was largely responsible for Elvin’s smooth transition to civilian life.The marriage was blessed by three sons. Chris Elvin Beemer was born February 24, 1948, and Cedric Britt Beemer was born September 12, 1951. In July 1954, Margaret and Elvin purchased the Bedford Locker Plant, and the family moved to Bedford in 1955. On October 11, 1956, Chad Bordner Beemer was born to complete the family.Margaret devoted her life to her family, her community, and her country. She laughingly claimed when she and Elvin were married, Elvin had to teach her how to cook oatmeal. From those humble culinary beginnings, she became known as one of the area’s best bakers of pies and angel food cakes, which she faithfully delivered to neighbors at times of illness, bereavement, or celebration. She turned loaves and loaves of bread into jelly sandwiches as after-school snacks for her boys and the friends they brought home. All the neighbors knew to call her for advice about removing stubborn laundry stains. She kept business records and supplied food to several elderly neighbors, enabling them to remain in their homes. In later years, Margaret specialized in her role as grandmother, coming to know each grandchild as a unique individual, and even playing the role of “extra” grandmother to a neighbor girl. She spent hours gathering genealogical information for both her people and Elvin’s, linking the past to the present, turning formerly unknown relatives into dear friends. Margaret earned local respect and a nomination as Mother of the Year through American Mothers, Inc., an interfaith, non-political, non-profit organization.Additionally, she supported Elvin’s civic contributions, lodging representatives from the O’Bryan Brothers when they came to town to establish Bedford’s fist factory. She served as president of Elderly Housing at Northside apartments and at various county and state leadership levels with the Republican Party. Having suffered from osteoporosis, Margaret volunteered for an experimental drug treatment. When she eventually learned she had been given only the placebo, she still celebrated that her diligence and record-keeping contributed to others’ better health.After ninety years that epitomized humble service, Margaret gently slipped away to eternal life on March 26, 2011, at Bedford Nursing and Rehab, which she and Elvin had helped to establish.Left to cherish the deep and many ways she shaped their lives are her three sons and their families: Chris and his wife Judy Osburn Beemer of Milford, Kansas, and their grown children Christa and Jud; Britt and his wife Jan Cook Beemer of Orlando, Florida, and their daughters Chloe and Claire; Chad and his wife Lori Seil Beemer of Elk Horn, Iowa, and their sons Alan, Andy, and Aric; a nephew Larry Bayless and his wife Shirley of Carroll, Iowa, and others who were blessed to know her.Preceding Margaret in death are her beloved husband of sixty-eight years, Elvin Homer Beemer; her sister, Berniece Atkins Bordner Bayless; a sister-in-law Marjorie Beemer Newman and her husband Forest (Pete) Newman References
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