Ileta Beckloff

Dorothy Ileta Beckloff, 87, of Bentonville passed away on Sunday, December 17, 2017 in the Circle of Life, Bentonville. Ileta was born in Paragould Arkansas to Burl and Delpha Buchanan on June 13, 1930.

She graduated from Springfield High School in Missouri in 1947 and from Harding College in Searcy in 1956. She taught elementary school at Crowley’s Ridge Academy in Paragould and Athens Bible School in Florence, Alabama before moving to Dover, New Jersey, where she met and married James Beckloff, her husband of 57 years. She taught elementary school in New Jersey until the family moved to Bentonville, and she continued her teaching career until retirement at Gravette Elementary School.

Ileta was a host mother to Fernanda Ugalde, high school senior exchange student from Ecuador and to Sergey Linski, a high school student from Ukraine. She was a faithful companion in all of her husband's activities. She found much joy in playing scrabble and in being with her children and GRANDchildren. She was a member of the Bentonville Church of Christ and an adult leader in the Centerton 4-H club.

After retirement, she and Jay travelled to Wuhan, China, where she taught conversational English in 1997-1998 and to Nigeria where she taught English and was the librarian at West Nigeria Christian College between 1999 and 2005. She and her husband were the recipients of the DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIAN SERVANT AWARD by West Nigeria Christian College and School of Biblical Studies, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, in August, 2013.

Ileta is preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Clifford Buchanan.

She is survived by her husband of 57 years, James Beckloff of Bentonville; her children: Risa (Galen) Hunter of Fort Smith, Kent (Julie) Beckloff of Bentonville, and Brenda Beckloff of Fort Smith; a brother, Walter Buchanan of Waxahachie, Texas; sisters Betty (Jerry) Gatlin of Paragould, and Jenette Buchanan of Asheville, North Carolina; grandchildren Carson Hunter of Knoxville, Tennessee, Marshall Hunter and Nora Chapman of Fort Smith, and Alexandra and Nathan Beckloff of Bentonville, as well as many nieces and nephews.