Dorothy (Dottie) Patton Beeson

Dorothy (Dottie) Beeson died on April 26th, 2012 in Green Valley, AZ. Dorothy Maxine Patton Beeson was born Jan. 10, 1921 in Kansas City, Mo. parents Wade Keedwell Patton and Adelaide Hord McBride. She grew up in Hutchinson, KS where she attended Hutchinson Jr. College, then Gulf Park School for Girls in Gulfport, MS, and graduated with B.S. in Finance from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL where she was chosen one of the Outstanding Junior Women in 1942. Dorothy married Donald Russell Beeson at Northwestern Dec. 3, 1943 and after World War II they moved to Boulder, Colorado where they established an insurance agency, became active in community affairs and their children were born. Decedents include daughter Diane Kay Beeson, Madrid, Spain and David Beeson of Thornton, Colorado, granddaughters Teresa Beeson Mastracchio (Anthony) of Waukegan, IL and Danielle Beeson Hesser (Danny) of Fort Collins, CO. Great grandchildren include Kimana, Marley and Aviel Hesser, and Allyse Mastracchio. Dorothy is also survived by nieces and nephews of her brother, Don Patton (deceased), nieces Danna (Patton) Miller of Caspar, Wyoming, her children, Andrea and Marc Miller, Sandy (Patton) Vargo and her husband Mike, grandnephew, Tyler Wells and grandniece, Natalie Vargo of Plain City, Ohio ; nephews Scott Patton, wife Tracy and their children, Kenzie and Sullivan Bohren, of Hutchinson, grandnephew Brad Patton, wife Sorrell and great grandnephews, Gavin and Collin Patton of Hutchinson, Bill Patton of Hutchinson and grandnieces, Jordan Patton of New York and Lindsey (Patton) Boese, her husband Gary and her daughter, great grandniece, Khloe Boese of Bazine, Kansas., two nieces and two nephews and their families.

In Boulder, Dorothy worked at the Bureau of business Research for University of Colorado, served on Board of Trustees and Board of the Auxiliary of Boulder Community Hospital. She also served as organizing committee and on the Boards of the Boulder County Child Guidance Clinic, the Mental Health Association of Boulder and the University of Colorado, Visiting Nurse Association, the Reach-To- Recovery group for American Cancer Society, Save-A-Life League, the Boulder County Blood Bank and Bone Bank., served terms on the Boards of the Mile Hi Community Chest, Boulder Art Association, Association of Insurance Women, AAUW, DAR, PEO, PTA, and other service groups.

As a professional artist, Dorothy was one of the charter members of the Mustard Seed Gallery, a cooperative established for nearly twenty five years in Boulder and of the Snow-Bird Gallery in Green Valley, AZ in 1969. As a permanent exhibiting artist in Karin Newby Gallery in Tubac, AZ she shows regularly in the juried shows in Tubac Center of the Arts, and with the Artist 13, Critiquers, Santa Rita Art League, and Multi-Media Group of the National Association of American Pen Women. She is a Signature member of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild and often won prizes in the juried exhibitions at the Tubac Art Center shows of the Western Federation of Waterecolorists. She was honored by the Green Valley Needle Pointers when one of her paintings was reproduced in a four by six feet tapestry by them and is now hanging in the Conrad Joyner Library in Green Valley.

In 1997 after the death of Don Beeson, she moved to the La Posada Retirement Center into a Garden Home where she has her studio and has been active for many years in the art activities and the Food Committee in that facility.

Interment will be at Mountain View Memorial Park in Boulder and memorial services will be planned for later in the summer. Dorothy wished that any donations in her memory be sent to the American Cancer Society in Boulder or Tucson.