Dorothy Beach

Memorial Services were held 2:00 P.M., Tuesday, August 6, 1996 at the Aurora United Methodist Church. Inurnment was held in the Aurora Cemetery.

OBITUARY: Dorothy Beach

Dorothy Jane Beach, the daughter of Herman and Pearl (McKelvie) Briggs, was born at Clay Center, Nebraska, on July 22, 1915, and died at Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 31, 1996, at the age of 81 years and 9 days.

At the age of 5 the family moved to Wyoming and later to Colorado, where she graduated from Flager, Colorado High School, and then attended Denver Business College. After graduation from business college she began work as a secretary.

While living in Denver, Colorado, she met Ivan Wayne Beach, and on August 30, 1945, they were united in marriage in Denver. He preceded her in death on August 30, 1989.

After their marriage they moved to Harvard, Nebraska, where Wayne and his brother Lowell started a land leveling business. Dorothy kept books for the business, and in 1949, the family moved to Aurora, where she continued to be wife, mother and bookkeeper for the family business. She was also secretary at the Aurora High School for 2 years in the late 1950’s. In 1975, she opened the Hearthside Candle Shop in Aurora.

In 1978, they moved to Sun City, Arizona, after selling the land leveling business. In 1983, Wayne suffered a stroke and she cared for him in their Sun City home until their return to Aurora in July of 1989.

Dorothy was a member of the Aurora United Methodist Church, where she served as Sunday School Superintendent, was a Sunday School teacher, and was president of the Women’s Society. She was also a member of the Easter Star, was a Cub Scout Den Mother in the 1950’s, belonged to the Womens Club (American Home Depot), was a member of the Board of Directors of the Memorial Hospital, and the hospital auxiliary, was a charter member of the National Association of Candle Makers, was a Plainsman Museum Tour Guide, was a library board member, and was a reading tutor at the Alta Loma School in Sun City.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, a brother Ward Briggs and a sister Gladys Briggs.

Those who remain to cherish her memory are her 2 sons, John of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Bill of Lincoln; one brother Harold Briggs of Clay Center; 4 grandchildren, Jon Beach, Jodi Zaruba, Taylor and Morgan Beach, and a great grandson Trevor Zaruba.