Individual Details

Obituary

J. S. Hargleroad correspondence:

J S HargleroadSep 4, 2005
Beulah was put under Hospice care in July following a heart attack. After church today Liz and I stopped by Carmel Home to see Mom. We were met at the door and the attendant said that they had been trying to call us. Mom had died at 9:50 AM today. She has been refusing food and medication the last few days and was growing weaker. When I visited her Saturday morning she was in bed and very weak. But she was awake and barely mouthed the words to me, "I am okay". A brave lady to the end! This morning when the staff there were tending her, they said she was having problems breathing and knew she was near the end. The local memorial service for our family at our church's chapel is Sunday, September 11 at 4:00 PM. Buzz and I will conduct a graveside service for Mom in Omaha on October 3rd at 10:00 AM where she will be buried close to grandson Andrew who died in December 1971.

Attached is a Hargleroad family photo taken March 24, 1929 in Hastings, NE that many of you had seen before. Mom and Dad had eloped about a week before this picture was taken and probably this was a family gathering introducing Jim's new bride to the family. Mom never talked about her marriage to Dad but I was made aware of the date of their marriage, March 15, 1929, at Bob Rigg Jr's gathering this spring on one of the genealogy charts there. Mom always felt accepted by the Hargleroad family even after the divorce so the gathering must have been amicable. Beulah was the last survivor from this photo. Ione now is the last surviving member of this generation. Anna Johnson died within the year of the taking of this picture from kidney failure. The family in the photo are identified as follows:

Front Row: Jim and Beulah, Jack and Jim Rigg, Beverly & W. B. III
Second Row: W. B. & Maggie H., Anna Johnson H. & W. B. Jr
Third Row: Marge Nelson, Grace H. (Lacko), Jewell H.
Back Row: Louis & Pearl Nelson, Ralph H., Ruth & Jim Rigg

Below is Beulah's obituary. I hope the photo gets past the Wellington filter on Yahoo.

Stan Hargleroad (Son of Jim and Beulah)

PS The photo was taken at the big house in Hasting across the street from Hastings College. Back in 1999 Liz and I went back to Hastings/Holstein and visited the family who now lives in this house. We were told that this was the home where Tom Osborne of Nebraska football fame grew up. Later Grandma and Grandpa Hargleroad moved to a smaller home several blocks to the south of this home.


Beulah Hargleroad


Beulah Lee Hargleroad, 99, Burt County's Home Extension Agent from 1948 to 1971, was best known for teaching women home economics skills and working with 4-H young people. She died September 4, 2005 at Carmel Board and Care Home in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Beulah was born February 20, 1906 at Wood River, Nebraska, the daughter of Clara and Samuel Deems. The family moved to Woodruff, Kansas but in 1910 moved again to Steele City, Nebraska. She attended country school in Jefferson County and graduated from Steele City High School in 1924. Following graduation, Beulah taught one year in rural school in Jefferson County.

Beulah attended one year at Nebraska Wesleyan College and then transferred to University of Nebraska, School of Home Economics, where she graduated in 1929. She studied child development for one semester at the Merrill Palmer School of Home Economics at Wayne State University in Detroit. While at the University, she was inducted into the Upsilon Omicron Home Economics Honorary Fraternity.

In March of 1929 she married James C. Hargleroad and moved to Colorado for about two years to raise wheat until the Depression and drought forced them out of farming. The couple had three children, Jean, James (Buzz), and Stanley. The marriage later ended in divorce.

From 1936 to 1938 Beulah operated the Havelock Nursery School that provided day care and pre-school education for children of working families in Lincoln, Nebraska. She worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Hartington, Nebraska from 1938 to 1945. In this position she helped farm families who lacked credit sources to qualify for low cost government loans to purchase their own land and to improve their farms and homes. Also she helped farm women stretch the food budget and guide family nutrition. In 1945 Beulah was transferred to the FSA office to work with farm families in Burt and Washington Counties. The FSA was disbanded in 1947 and she briefly worked for the local Rural Electrification Administration in Tekamah.

In 1948 she became the Burt County Home Extension Agent where she served until her retirement in June 1971. As a Home Extension agent she led Burt County extension clubs where many farm women in the county enhanced their skills in cooking, nutrition, child development, and home management. Some Burt County women still credit her for opening the doors for them in improving the quality of life in their homes as she traveled throughout the county giving hands on demonstrations to improve family life. As a 4-H leader she provided opportunities for Burt County youth in understanding and gaining experience in basic nutrition, homemaking skills, and leadership. Beulah spent many summers helping to make 4-H camp and county fairs a challenging experience for Burt County youth. She was proud of all 4-H youth who excelled in their homemaking projects. She also wrote a regular home economics column for the Burt County Plaindealer for many years.

Following retirement, she moved to Sun City, Arizona where she was active in many church and community activities. In 1998 she moved to Los Angeles, CA area to be closer to her son, Stanley.

Preceding her in death were sisters Grace Palmer and Harriet Deems, brother Howard Deems, and grandsons Andrew Hargleroad and Robert Andersen.

Beulah is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Jean and Robert Andersen of St. Paul, MN, sons and daughters-in-law, James (Buzz) and Bobbi Hargleroad of Louisville, KY and Stanley and Elizabeth Hargleroad of Encino, CA, seven grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren.

Burial will be at Evergreen Memorial Park in Omaha on October 3 at 10:00 AM where a graveside service will be observed.

Memorials may be directed to the First Presbyterian Church of Tekamah or the Alzheimer's Association.