Waneta Rae Beaver

My mom, Waneta Rae Beaver, was born on September 23, 1944. She passed away, when she was ready, on February 6, 2026.

Waneta Campbell was born in Spencer, Iowa, the first of five siblings. Her parents, Glenn and Grace Campbell farmed west of Emmetsburg Iowa. She was joined by two sisters, Sherri and Donna, a brother, Edward, and youngest sister, Charlene.

Neta’s health was frail when she was younger and while her siblings did farm chores, she learned to cook from her grandmother, Gramma Lilly. She learned how to cook for a large family and how to make use of everything. Canning and storage became hobbies. Neta graduated high school in 1962 and after, she took a job caring for an elderly neighbor in town. This eventually led to Mom becoming a medical assistant at Emmetsburg’s hospital. Her favorite job in the hospital was working in the nursery with babies and their new moms.

In 1968, Neta met her future husband. Charlie, her youngest sister, and his cousin, who were best friends, conspired to introduce them through letter writing. His name is Steven Earl Beaver. At the time, he was stationed in Greenland, a world away. She was living in Fort Dodge Ia, and neither was very happy. The friends got Waneta and Steven to correspond and they just clicked! Waneta traveled to Biloxi MS, where Steve was stationed, and they met in person for the first time. He was very impressed and could not believe that she was so attracted to him! They began writing in January of 1968 and were married on April 5, 1969.

Neta and Steve were married in the Methodist church in Emmetsburg, Iowa during a rainstorm and flood. At one point, the groom was on one side of the river, the bride on the other! Neither hell nor high water would stay the inevitable; these two were simply meant to be together.

Once the honeymoon was over and the new couple settled, Vietnam called. Steve deployed to Thailand for his duty and Neta returned to Iowa to continue hospital work and await his return. Not the last time she would wish they didn’t have to be apart. Once Steve’s service was complete, he came back to her, and the next chapter could be written.

Kansas then became home. At Forbes Air Force on October 23, 1972, Neta and Steve became Mom and Dad! Things were tough for Mom at first. Little Jonathon Earl was a bit sick when he came into the world, and Mom had to leave him in the hospital for a month. That separation really hurt and she really wanted him home. She understood all that a mother goes through and she loved deeply and continuously because of it.

California and McClellen Air Force Base became her next home. Dad worked communications and Mom ran the house and the little one. Once we moved on base, Mom and son would walk to a small restaurant for breakfast, then on to a park. Eventually, she began volunteering at a preschool in that park and her son joined her there. She also began working at a day care facility inside the base bowling alley. She would bowl with a league and then work at the nursery until late. Dad’s job was going well and he was promoted, Mom was happy with her family and the home she’d made, so the government decided we needed to move.

After an arduous trip we three arrived in Colorado. Dad’s next job brought us to the United States Air Force Academy. Mom immediately began work on our new home. She got to know our new neighbors and began volunteering in her son’s elementary school.

When new furniture was needed, she started working at the small department store on base to raise money for dining room furniture that could seat many more people. Good thing, too, because our family was soon introduced to the Air Force Academy tradition known as “Dooley Dining Out.” Young, freshman cadets came to our house by the bus load, it seemed. Mom handled everything. She made food for everyone, plus snacks and desserts to take back and share with less fortunate colleagues. Beaver Brownies were best known and most requested. These cadets came back to us the whole time they were at the Academy, bringing their friends with them. We even had a brother, and his younger sister share our home. These things really made Mom happy, not only because she could provide a home away from home for these cadets, but her own family was also there with her, too. Many of these fine young men and women are still friends of my parents today. What a special legacy.

Mom was indispensable for everything our family did, and she was very involved. She was a Den Mother for her son’s Cub Scout pack. As he went further in Scouting, she kept up, making sure he did his best. She valued her son’s advancement and participation, and she would carry this support throughout his progression into Boy Scouts.

As our time at the Academy neared an end, several things happened at the same time that demonstrated Mom’s remarkable character and love. First, an assignment to West Germany came up for her husband’s career. Next, her son decided to get sick again, requiring removal of tonsils. Finally, with all this happening, she would have to move our things and ready the house for inspection by herself. A foreign country is a daunting challenge, but Dad’s career would benefit, so she supported his move, like she always did. Preparations were difficult, not only because of the overseas destination, but also because Dad had to leave for an early reporting date. With her son recovering from surgery, she didn’t have much help packing, arranging movers, and cleaning the house and getting it cleared. So, she just did it herself. That was her way, and it was always good enough!

West Germany was a completely different world for our family. We lived for months without household goods, but Mom picked us up, put us to work cleaning the apartment, and got the kitchen running to keep us fed. She supported Dad’s return to work and her son’s restless summer with no friends. This foreign country was not a safe place for Americans at that time. Terrorists attacked our new base just the year before we arrived and would attack other bases while we were there. Security was very tight and Mom made sure her son had his ID card everywhere he went. With all that could have happened, Mom chose not to let the opportunities of living in Europe go to waste. She travelled to Spain not long after we were settled, becoming the first member of our family to venture out and see more of Europe. She would eventually lead us on trips to dozens of foreign capitals and world-famous locations; the Eifel Tower and the Colosseum to name two. She also allowed her son to travel between bases on a shuttle bus to help with family chores. When her son got back to Scouting, she encouraged him to stick with it and do his best, continually! Thankfully she did because, after a rough start, he took off. She was a member of the Troop board and organized all of his Troop’s ceremonies. At the same time, Mom became involved in the Non-Commissioned Officers Wives club and Protestant Women of the Chapel organizations. She loved her time with these outfits and quickly made herself indispensable to each. Her favorite challenge was hosting meals at the chapel for young Airmen with no families. Sharing a homecooked meal with them hopefully brought some comfort so far from home. In this activity, and many others, Mom continued the generous, loving ways she showed those Air Force Academy cadets years before.

While caring for unaccompanied Airmen and her son’s Scouting, she also supported her husband’s career. She attended award ceremonies constantly, which required dressing up, and would cook potluck meals for going away parties and unit functions. She also kept after him to finish his bachelor’s degree. Soon, Dad earned his degree and a promotion! With such good work, and support from his devoted wife, Dad also earned a new assignment, so moving and cleaning and inspecting began once again. This time Mom had all the help she needed; taking charge, telling the movers how she wanted things wrapped and packed, and telling her son to go camping, so he’d be out of the way and supervised! Mom just knew how to get things done.

After a long flight from Germany to England to Canada to Philadelphia, our family picked up our car and drove from the east coast to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, visiting family and friends along the way. The friends we saw were all former Academy cadets Mom and Dad sponsored. Not surprisingly, each one asked Mom to cook! Montana was different from other places our family were stationed. It was windy, dry, could get really cold, and it was windy. Constantly windy. Breezy days were windy. Even when there wasn’t any wind, it was windy. Mom noticed this right after her allergies noticed. Despite this, she simply got us taken care of. We had to stay in temporary quarters while we waited for our house to be ready and Mom made even that situation feel like home. Finally in a real house, she saw to it that her husband and son got down to business. She gently pushed her son to Eagle Scout, helping with his Troop and activities all along the way. She was also the perfect Mom for a high school kid; keeping her son honest but not leaning on him too hard. Her son attracted some interesting characters for friends and every one of them envied him his parents, especially his Mother. She continued her never-ending support for her husband’s career. When promotion time came, she cleared the house out so he could study. No doubt she was as happy as he was when he was promoted to Chief Master Sergeant, the highest enlisted rank in the Air Force. She was with him for most of his career and helped him every step of the way. While doing all of this, she still had enough energy to take up with the Enlisted Wives Club, becoming treasurer and then President. She was so effective that the officers’ wives club handed most of the joint activities between the two clubs off to her. In the role of President, Mom became a bit of a celebrity around the base. The commanding officer knew Mom by name and knew Dad as “Mrs. Beaver’s Husband!”

After four years of family and professional success, our family went separate ways for the next chapter in life. Mom and son went to Colorado Springs, Colorado to prepare for the next step in Dad’s career while he took an assignment to Turkey, his third oversees assignment during their marriage. She got everything moved, cleaned, and inspected again and hit the road. Back in Colorado, Mom set up in a townhouse with her son while Dad spent the next 15 months keeping tabs on the Middle East. Mom missed him terribly yet supported him always.

While Dad was gone, Mom decided that an actual house was better than any townhouse, so she built one. She found a new development, chose a floorplan, figured out financing, picked out colors and options and Dad agreed. We bought a Polaroid camera and went to the construction site every evening to take pictures we could send to Dad to show the progress. When the house was finished, she unpacked her family’s belongings in her house. It was and is the first house Mom and Dad owned. She built it, just like all the other homes we had together.

Mom and Dad retired from the Air Force in 1996; Dad served our country for 30 years and Mom served with him for 27 of them. Soon after, Dad began his second career as a defense contractor. Mom remodeled her kitchen, making it look like someone who knew how to run a house used it. She used that kitchen thoroughly even spending time teaching her son to cook her favorite recipes.

In June of 2019, Mom took a tumble off the steps in our patio and conked her head. She fractured a bone under her eye and sustained a severe concussion. During her recovery, she fell and broke her hip. Incredibly, Mom took these awful circumstances in stride, only really being irritated at the fact that she couldn’t be with her family while she healed. During this time, she realized other things were not working right and dementia was diagnosed. Mom didn’t see this as a problem really. She still had her family and her home.

While she was recovering, walking was difficult. She got used to being driven around in a wheelchair and eventually came to depend on her husband and son wheeling her around. She didn’t mind because someone she loved very much was close by and could talk with her. She loved those small moments. Dad took her out to the breakfast table to eat and chat while he washed dishes. Her son wheeled her out to the kitchen for night time snack and medicine, after which she enjoyed going to her favorite window to look at the stars and the moon. We used to read the weather in the streetlight across the road; was it raining or snowing? She would then go around the house turning off lights and drawing curtains to put her home to bed.

Even though reading and understanding recipe cards became difficult, she loved helping her son cook. She did her best and imparted wisdom along the way. She would even help chop zucchini. Soon, it became too difficult to sit up in the wheelchair for long, so she stayed in her room, but she always wanted to know what was cooking, usually by asking “what’s that smell!”

At one point she lost her appetite and became ill. We took her to a hospital for treatment and she recovered. She never regained her appetite for food but developed a great liking for Boost shakes. For more than a year, she drank only Boost shakes while eating nothing at all. This required a lot of Boost, but she seemed to thrive. Between Boost and her water bottle she stayed hydrated and happy.

During the end of 2024 and all of 2025, Mom needed extra care that her husband and son didn’t know how to provide so we asked special caregivers to come into our home to help her. Rabina was the first. She was so kind and helped Mom by getting to know her and letting Mom get used to her before getting hands on. Mom always wanted to know what was going on and Rabina took the time that Mom needed. Isabelle would be the next to help Mom and she continued the excellent care that Mom needed. Mom could be feisty and Isabelle knew just what to do to keep Mom from worrying too much. In the middle of 2025, Jennifer and Ashley started with Mom and would care for her every morning and night for the rest of her life. Mom didn’t really remember them each time she saw them but tried to be as helpful as possible, frequently telling them what they were doing right and wrong! Jennifer could tell when Mom needed a break and would do other tasks while Mom relaxed. Ashley talked with Mom, holding conversations with her even when we thought Mom couldn’t do that anymore! Jennifer washed Mom’s hair and gave her baths in bed, so she was always bright and cheerful. Ashley would pray with Mom and encourage her, even when Mom was being a bit of a pill. All of these women impressed us greatly. They made Mom’s life happy and comfortable, not just livable or bearable.

Pikes Peak Hospice gave Mom additional care and resources. Medical care like blood pressure checks and respiration proved that Mom was healthy. Hospice also kept an eye on anything that came up, like when Mom developed a touch of pneumonia. They cared for Mom from December of 2024 and were there with her, along with her husband when she passed away.

My mother, Waneta Rae Beaver, spent every moment I knew her caring for her family. Everything she was, would be, or wanted to be, related to her husband and her son. That love is so powerful that we still feel it now. We don’t wish that she was still here with us; she was ready and she decided it was her time. God agreed and willingly brought her to Him. We know that we will see her again. Until then, her memory and her love are so much a part of us that she will sustain us, and she will bring us home to her. Home, where she was always happiest.

We’ll see her again.

Left to cherish memories of her are her husband, Steve, and son, Jonathon, of Colorado Springs, CO; Sisters Donna Foxhoven of Peoria, AZ and Charlene (Michael) Carrigan of Dakota Dunes, SD; Nieces Shelly (Michael) Norton and family of Dakota Dunes, SD, Melissa (Michael) Johnson and family of Honey Creek, IA, and Susan (Tony) Zucarelli and family of Peoria, AZ; Nephews Michael (Hilda) Carrigan, Jr and family of Dakota Dunes, SD and John Campbell; In-laws Todd Beaver of Almena, WI, Kaylene (Al) McElfresh of Star Prairie, WI, and Kristy (Terry) Sand of Amery, WI.; Nieces April (Matt) Mills of Ellensburg WA., and Athena Pelton of Blaine MN.; Nephews Noel (Allissa) McElfresh, Nick Hammer, Todd (Checkelea) Hammer, and their families.

She is preceded in death by her father, Glen Campbell, mother Grace (Campbell) Means, sister Sherry (Dave) Lande, and brother Edward Campbell.

A ”Celebration of Life” gathering will be held Thursday, April 23, 2026, from 3 to 7 PM, at Dove-Witt Family Mortuary, 6630 S. Hwy 85/87, Fountain, CO who are also in charge of arrangements. Burial will take place at a later date.

We would like to thank Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care for helping us manage Neta’s care over the last 14 months so she could spend her time in the safety and security of her own home while getting the care she needed. We would also like to thank the caregivers of Right at Home for the exceptional attention and care they gave to Neta during this time.

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Neta’s favorite charity.