Baker City, Oregon
Lillian S. Beam, 83, a longtime Baker City resident, died July 13, 2004, at St. Elizabeth Health Care Center.
Her funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Gray’s West & Co., 1500 Dewey Ave. The Rev. Ed Niswender of the Calvary Baptist Church will officiate. Vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Visitations will be until 8 o’clock tonight at Gray’s West & Co.
She was born Delilah Lillian Siegler on Sept. 1, 1920, at Kulm, N.D., to John and Katherina Weisser Siegler. After finishing her schooling, she traveled West with her sister, Viola, to Tacoma, Wash., where they both went to work at Madigan Army Hospital.
It was there she met and married Robert “Bob” Beam in November of 1946. They made their home at Olympia, Wash., until Bob was discharged from the service. At that time they moved to Unity where Bob’s parents, Ralph and Rose, lived. They later moved to Mount Vernon and John Day, but eventually made Baker City their home.
Together they had four children, Tom, Susan, John and Mike. After 26 years of marriage they divorced, but they always stayed close. Bob died in 1990.
Lillian spent most of her life as a devoted homemaker, wife and mother. You could always count on a good meal at her home.
After the children got older, Lillian went to work for the Hereford Motel in Baker City and later moved to the Oregon Trail Motel where she ended her working career.
Lillian was a member of the Royal Neighbors of America for a number of years and enjoyed traveling to out-of-town functions. She also enjoyed going to the Senior Center. For many years she was a constant and faithful companion to her mother-in-law, Rose Beam, and they could always be seen together at events around town.
Lillian spent the last several years living at Meadowbrook, having just recently moved to St. Elizabeth Care Center a couple of weeks before she died.
Survivors include her son, Tom Beam, and his wife, Suzan, of Woodburn; sons, John and Mike Beam of Baker City; daughter-in-law, Lorna Beam, of Baker City; a daughter, Susan Staab, and her husband, Carlyle, of Chehalis, Wash.; 15 grandchildren and stepgrandchildren, Tom Beam, Chris Beam, Debee Wilson, Jeremy Beam, Eddie Beam, Jeff Colton, Rick Colton, Brad Staab, David and Michael Beam, Jerry Dowdy, Brett Goodyard, David and Ken Staab and Laurie Painter; 10 great-grandchildren; sisters, Maggie Siegler of Jamestown, N.D., Vangie and her husband, Orville Wolff of Sacred Heart, Minn., Lorraine and her husband, Henry Hettick of Bismarck, N.D., and Viola Swain of Eugene; and one brother, Wilbur of Kulm, N.D.
She was preceded in death by brothers, Jake and Johnny; and several half brothers and half sisters.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Alzheimer’s Association or the charity of one’s choice through Gray’s West & Co., P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, July 16, 2004
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor