Elizabeth Ellen (Stockard) Beekman, 86

Elizabeth was an only child born to Rudy Dudley Stockard and Margaret Ellen (McCallie) Stockard in Whittier, California, in 1929. She was raised in Buena Park, California, and graduated from Fullerton High School at the age of 16, in 1945.

She met her future husband Richard while they both attended Fullerton Junior College (FJC). She graduated from FJC with an Associate of Arts degree in 1947 and went on to attend the University of California, Riverside, in the early 1960s.

After Richard served one year in the Army Air Corps, they were married in 1948. Moving to Palo Alto, California, Elizabeth worked as a secretary for the superintendent of schools, while Richard attended Stanford University, graduating in 1950. They moved back to southern California and Fullerton to start their family. Son Richard was born in Fullerton in 1951, daughter Peggy in Orange in 1953, and son Christopher in San Fernando in 1967.

While Richard worked as an electronics engineer for various companies, Elizabeth was a stay-at-home mom. She considered herself the CEO of their personal lives, running everything in an orderly and efficient manner. She often said Richard’s job was to earn the money and hers was to save it. Presentation was important to her, whether it concerned the inside or outside of her home. She said her husband never knew what he was coming home to as she greatly enjoyed making improvements by changing rooms, moving furniture or painting walls. Her home was spotless and her garden immaculate.

She had an immense pride in her home and also loved to please her family by being the “tour director” of various fun activities and vacations. While living in Sherman Oaks, California, in the late 1950s, she became active in the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club and started the first Civil Defense program in the San Fernando Valley.

In 1971, with the two older children in college, Elizabeth and Richard moved to Lake Arrowhead, California, with their younger son Chris. There Elizabeth became active in the hospital auxiliary and served as a volunteer for 16 years. She also joined the Hilltoppers Garden Club and served for two years as president, and a member for six years.

Their love of travel was a cornerstone in their lives, traveling to different national parks with their children and even internationally to Europe, as well as Central America with their youngest child Chris after Richard retired. When Chris went to college, Richard and Elizabeth started traveling in their RV. They went all over the Lower 48 states, Canada and Mexico. Many of these trips included their son Richard, grown with his own family and RV which offered them invaluable time with their granddaughter Katie. Elizabeth loved their adventures and took great joy when speaking of their long tradition of stopping at the end of the day to enjoy a Black Russian with her husband, often saying it was five o’clock somewhere!

In addition to their RV travels, they enjoyed traveling outside the country together by going to such places as Europe, Cancun and the Caribbean. They traveled to Australia for their 50th anniversary, which was a very special time for them.

The couple moved to Kalispell in 2003 to be near their daughter Peggy and her husband Mark Weyant, who live currently in Coram. Richard predeceased her in 2004, after celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary, and she devoted herself to her home, flowers and yard which drew praise from her neighbors and perfect strangers. She continued her travels in 2006 by going with her family to China which she described as the trip of a lifetime.

She was a member of the Red Hat Society of Kalispell and belonged to two separate chapters, Perhaps Sisters and the Klassie Lassies, serving several terms as queen. She moved to the Buffalo Hill Terrace in 2014 and quickly made friends with the residents and staff and joined in with all the activities. She was known by all for her wonderful sense of humor.

She leaves her children, Richard, a retired Exxon ship captain, and his wife Donnieta of Corpus Christi, Texas; Peggy Weyant and her husband Mark, of Coram; and Chris, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado-Denver, and his wife Kathleen, an artist, of Bailey, Colorado; her grandchildren, Shannon Freiheit and her fiancee Ahmad Hussein of Kalispell, Katie and her husband Jason Cooke of Corpus Christi, Tina and her husband Rick Guthrie of Hampton, Virginia, Holly and her husband Marc Holmquist of Austin, Texas, and Greg and his wife Jessica Weyant of Lago Vista, Texas; along with great-grandchildren, Synthea, Melanie and Evelyn Freiheit of Kalispell, Elizabeth and her husband Duane of Abilene, Texas, Cathy Guthrie of Hampton, and Ada and Aspen Weyant of Lago Vista.

Elizabeth always gave her children and grandchildren all the love and guidance she could and loved having them all around.

In accordance with her wishes, Dixieland jazz was played at the memorial as her family and friends raised glasses of Black Russians to salute and celebrate her life. She was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.

The family wanted to thank the Buffalo Hill Terrace staff for their loving care of our mother.