The round trip walk to school for Doris and her brothers and sisters was three miles if you took the shortcut through the fields. Doris was five years old and walked three miles a day, five days a week through rain, sleet, snowstorms, hail, oppressive heat and humidity. There were chores, chores and more chores; there was never a shortage of work. This would become a driving force in Doris’ life.
Doris’ Grandfather died in 1929 and they were forced to sell the farm and auction off all the equipment. In 1932 Doris entered high school at the age of 12 because she had skipped the third grade. She graduated from Kewanee High School at the age of 16 in 1936. She married Eugene Beaston in 1941 and had three children, Karen, Sherry and John.
She and Gene bought a store in the village of Bishop Hill, Illinois in 1952. At that time Bishop Hill was a farming community of 200 people, founded in 1849 by Swedish immigrants seeking religious freedom. The store was more than just a store; it was the only store in town and served as a café, grocery, butcher shop and dry goods store. Doris was a smart, successful business woman. While Gene worked in Kewanee at the Boiler Shop, Doris managed to grow the store over the next seven years.
In 1959 the boiler shop was closed, and Gene wanted to move to Arizona in search of employment. At the end of the 1960 school year, Doris was forced to sell the store, much to the dismay of the townspeople. She moved her family by herself cross country to the copper mining town of Silver Bell, Arizona.
In 1964, she and Gene divorced, and she moved to Tucson where she found employment at St. Joseph’s Hospital washing bedpans. Doris was always an independent, hard-working, confident woman.
In 1970, her Mother Emma suffered a stroke, so Doris decided to return to Illinois to care for her Mother. In those six years at St. Joseph’s Hospital she went from washing bed pans to Central Supply and on to become an EKG technician. She had managed to buy a car and a house during her time at St. Joseph’s. She sold her house, packed her car and moved back home.
Upon her Mother’s passing in 1980, she moved to Branson, Missouri. Doris had been through Branson once or twice in her travels and thought she would like to live there. She found employment at the local hospital and bought a mobile home. The mobile home had a wood burning pot belly stove, so Doris had to purchase wood by the “rick” which is a measurement smaller than a cord. She used a hand saw to cut the logs and branches to length until she was gifted an electric chain saw.
Upon her retirement in 1985, she sold her mobile home and car in Branson, rented a U-Haul and moved back to Tucson to be close to her children and grandchildren. She worked at a sandwich shop until it’s closure three years later. She then worked two part time jobs, as a Grandy’s “Grandma” and as a clerk at McDonalds. While doing this, she also volunteered at the Tucson Community Food Bank, Tucson Botanical Gardens and SAAVI (Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired).
With her eyesight failing at the age of 80, Doris quit her jobs, sold her car and stayed home except for her volunteer work at SAAVI. She continued braiding rag rugs for SAAVI until she suffered a stroke in 2017. Doris’ goal was to reach 100 like her brother Walt and we all thought she would but seven months short of completing 100 years on earth, Doris passed away on March 19, 2019 at Handmaker Assisted Living, Tucson. The family would like to thank everyone at Handmaker for the loving care that Doris received during her time there.
Doris was preceded in death by six of her siblings, her daughter Karen Van Stelle, and her grandson David Kelly. She is survived by one brother Roland Krause (Carol), her daughter Sherry Memmer (Mike), and her son John Beaston (Peggy). She also leaves behind seven grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, and four great great grandchildren as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
To know Doris was to love her and she will be forever in our hearts.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18