Paula Patricia Beach was born in 1942, she spent her formative years in a garage apartment behind her paternal grandmother’s home. In addition to public school, her parents enrolled her in business school and by the age of 12 was helping with secretarial duties in her father’s car dealership. After graduating high school, she attended Eastern New Mexico University in Portales before marrying sailor Charles Bradley. They were stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii for a year or so. After their return to Portales, they had their only child, Melody. Charles moved to Dallas, and they subsequently divorced.
Paula began her working career at the Cannon Air Force Base Civilian Personnel Office. Rising quickly through promotions, she transferred to Texas, Arizona, and both North and South Carolina. She met Col. Blanton S. Keller during these transfers. They married in 1973 and built a dream house in Rogers, Arkansas with a new blended family including his 4 sons, David, Stephen, Michael, and Richard. Unfortunately, Col. Keller passed away from cancer soon after.
Paula returned to Civil Service and within a couple of years was the Civilian Personnel Manager at Goose Bay, Labrador. It was there that she met Lt. Col. Fred Beach. After the closure of Goose Bay, Paula transferred to Mt. Home, Idaho, and Fred followed her. After much negotiation and dancing, they married in 1977 after he retired. Soon she transferred to Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal where after another 4 years she finished her career. Paula and Fred began taking advantage of the opportunity to travel even then making trips to England, Germany, and Spain.
After her retirement, Paula and Fred settled back in Clovis to care for her mother. They began a life of caring for others and travelling broadly. They would often just get in the car and spontaneously go places or take long cruises. They moved to El Paso, Texas, after Paula spent several months caring for her cousin, John Paul Jones. Fred’s sister Viola moved to be near them so they could help care for her. Paula continued throughout her life to try hard to knit a family out of this extensive collection of people she loved.
As they began to become more frail, Paula and Fred moved to Austin, Texas in 2016 to be nearer to Melody and her children. It was difficult for them to allow others to help them when they were so used to being the ones doing the helping. After Fred passed in 2019 at 97, Paula moved to The Auberge for assisted living. She tried to keep her mind active and stay busy her entire life.
She is survived by her daughter, Melody McCormick, and her children, Nathaniel McCormick, Katherine McCormick, Elizabeth McCormick, and Alexander McCormick; step-son Richard Keller and his wife, Ann, their children Mallory Keller and James Keller; step-son David Keller and his wife, Dozmary, their son Nicholas Keller; step-son Stephen Beach and his wife Nancy, their children Colleen Beach and Matthew Beach.
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