Muriel Kelso Beaver

The Beaver/Duncan/Schneider clan lost its classiest member and biggest fan on August 3, 2012, when Muriel Kelso Beaver came to the end of her days. Gracious and smiling always, she perfected the roles of daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, neighbor and friend. Utterly selfless and with indomitable strength of spirit, she was a teacher, mentor, and rock in the face of all challenges. Muriel believed and imparted to her family that if one had a good sense of humor, one could survive anything, and her self-deprecating dry wit served her and all around her well and often. She was totally unpretentious, and when asked how she wanted to be remembered, she noted that she "had good posture and could fry a good skillet of okra". (She actually was an excellent cook and accomplished gardener, skills she passed on to her grandchildren and one of her daughters. The other daughter got her posture.)

Muriel was born in Jones County, Texas, on June 12, 1921 and lived there her entire life until moving to Austin, Texas in June, 2008 to be closer to her family. She graduated from high school in Merkel, Texas, where she sang and played volleyball. She completed Draughan Business College in Abilene, Texas. The daughter of farmers, she worked for the Agricultural Conservation Service, and then worked for 25 years in the Anson Public Schools, first teaching early childhood education and then serving as Middle School secretary. She unconditionally believed in each student whose life she touched, and many of her students came back to Anson to visit her often. The short-sighted cuts in funding for early childhood education saddened her to the end.

When Muriel retired from the school system in 1991, she continued to hone her considerable bridge-playing skills and fulfilled her lifelong desire to travel, journeying with friends and family to several different countries. She also turned her focus to the Anson community. A prolific reader, she began her first capital campaign at age 78, helping to build a new public library in Anson, a project that reached its fruition in 2001 when a beautiful new library opened in a restored historical building just off the town square. She was a lifelong member of the Anson First United Methodist Church, where she sang in the choir, served on the Board of Stewards and was instrumental with several other members of the congregation in saving the original 1882 gabled church building with its lofty ceilings and exquisite stained glass windows. She embodied the spirit of Methodism in her service to others. A product of the Great Depression, she was a populist and staunch Democrat all her life. She saw affording an equal economic and educational opportunity to every citizen to be a critical role of government, and the politics of meanness baffled and disappointed her.

When her daughters were situated in life to her satisfaction, her grandchildren became the beneficiaries of her wisdom, stories and boundless love. Well into her 80's, she frequently flew to California to see her family there and monthly she made the five hour drive from Anson to Austin to spend time with her grandsons. She would tell them when she arrived that she had shown the highway patrol their pictures so they would know why she was speeding.

Muriel was preceded in death by her parents, Walter Herman Kelso and Bertha Yeager Kelso; her sister, Earlene Kelso Scott; her former husband, Everett Beaver; and her dear friend, Wilborn Jensen.

She is survived by a sister, Winona Williams of Lubbock, Texas; two daughters and their husbands, Becky Beaver and John Duncan of Austin, Texas, and Beth and Bill Schneider of Los Altos, California; her grandchildren, Jennifer Duncan and husband, Jamie Sanders, of Logan, Utah; Matthew Duncan of Lubbock, Texas; William Duncan of New York City; Anna Schneider of Austin, Texas; and Ben Schneider of Williamstown, Massachusetts; one great-granddaughter, Chloe Sanders of Logan, Utah; two honorary great-grandchildren, Henry and Eleanor Voorhees of Austin, Texas; and a myriad of friends in West Texas and at Westminster Manor, where she lived on her move to Austin.

A memorial service for Muriel is scheduled at 3 p.m. on Saturday, August 11, 2012, in the Solarium at Westminster Manor, 4100 Jackson Avenue, Austin, Texas, Reverend John Elford and Reverend George Ricker presiding.

The family sends its special thanks to the nurses and staff at the Arbour at Westminster Manor and Buckner Hospice for their care and support of Muriel in these last few months.

Muriel asked that in lieu of flowers memorials be sent to the Anson Public Library, 1137 12th Street, Anson, Texas 79501.