Beulah Johnson Wilson lived a full life. She was born March 24, 1918 to George and Minnie Johnson in Tarr Valley, Wisconsin where her great grandparents, the Tarr family, were the first Anglo settlers.

She attended a one room school house. Barn dances, playing with cousins, and church were social occasions. She helped her mom in the house, but spent more time out of doors helping her father, brother and farmhands on the family farm. She remembered her mom taking a horse and wagon into town and also when her mom learned to drive their first car.

Education was always important. She loved school and often helped the teacher with younger students and learned as the teacher worked with the older students. She often rode her horse Billie to the school house from her family's farm and then sent him home to the barn.

She grew up during the Depression and so that her family could afford to send her into town for high school, she spent one year living with and working for a family who owned a cranberry packing plant. For high school she lived in an upstairs apartment in Tomah, Wisconsin with two other girls who became lifelong friends. They were good students, but they had a lot of fun too. On weekends she went home to her family's farm. In 2008, while visiting one of these friends in Wisconsin, the friend greeted her with "do you remember that we graduated 70 years ago today?" Following high school, she moved to Madison where she worked in the Capitol as a secretary. As soon as she could, she began taking classes at the University of Wisconsin. She worked her way through school working for several different families. In 1942 Beulah graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Home Economics.

Her family had sold the family farm in Wisconsin while Beulah was at the University. She followed them to the Rio Grande Valley where they had purchased another farm. When she arrived, she learned that to be certified to teach in Texas, she had to pass a Texas history test. She rented a room for several days and studied day and night and passed the test. She then taught for a year in Santa Rosa. She signed up over Christmas to join the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, but told them that she needed to complete her teaching contract. The day after school ended, she left for basic training. She was one of approximately 150,000 women who joined the WAACS during World War II. She did basic and advanced training in Alabama and Texas and then spent eighteen months in England. She arrived in England on the Queen Elizabeth on D Day, June 6, 1944. Once when her daughter Irene asked why she had joined the WAACS, she simply said "to serve my country."

After the war she returned to the Valley and served as the Home Demonstration Agent in Starr County. In 1947, she was at the Texas A&M campus in College Station with a group of 4-H girls when she met Mack Raymond Wilson. After a courtship primarily by letter, they married in the Valley and settled in Hallettsville. Soon after their marriage they bought a farm on St. Mary's road where she lived for more than sixty years.

After the arrival and early nurturing of three daughters: Irene, Jean and Alene, Mrs. Wilson began teaching science for Hallettsville ISD in 1955. She was the Junior High science teacher for most of the years prior to her retirement in 1979. She always enjoyed seeing and hearing from her former students.

While teaching she helped her husband with the family farm, where they raised chickens and sold eggs commercially until they sold the chicken operation and he began working for the post office.

Over weekends and during several summers, she attended Southwest Texas State Teachers College in San Marcos where she earned a Master of Education degree in 1957. In later years she received several National Science Foundation grants for postgraduate studies in the sciences. For two of those summers she lived in the dorm with her 3 children in Denton, Texas and Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Travel was always an important part of her life. While raising her children, she and her husband made many trips in Texas as well as many other states. They often camped in state parks. She and Mack took many driving trips as well as a train trip in Mexico with friends and family. In 1979 Beulah retired from teaching with plans to travel with her husband. On their first trip after retirement, they were in Alaska when Mack became very ill and soon after died. After that she traveled alone as well as with her sister and brother, often internationally. Favorite trips were to Australia where she visited friends who had been like her family in England during the war. She and her sister backpacked in England in their 60s. She and her brother traveled in Southeast Asia and Central America when she was in her 70s. She drove with all seven of her grandchildren after they each received their beginning drivers licenses (learners permit) to Wisconsin or Alaska. This was so that each could "practice their driving."

As a memorial to her husband after his death, she endowed a scholarship at Texas A&M for Lavaca County students. A great joy over the years was hearing from those students of their success at the university.

Special birthdays were celebrated over the years. Recently eighty friends celebrated her 92nd birthday at the Methodist annex. On her 90th birthday, her family honored her with the endowment of the Beulah Johnson Wilson endowment for Excellence in Teacher Training to benefit the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas. This award, with preference for Lavaca County teachers, is awarded annually to current teachers who pursue their masters in science, math, or engineering in the U-Teach program at U.T.

A love for family and friends, an enthusiasm for learning and service, and her Christian faith were hallmarks of her life. She was active in her church and her community. She taught the adult Sunday School Class and served on the board of First United Methodist Church for decades. She was elected and served in Austin as a member of the Silver-Haired Legislature for several terms. She was a member of the Reading Club, the Lavaca County Hospital Auxiliary, the Alma Circle of the Methodist Church, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Daughters of the American Revolution for many years, various bridge clubs, and the Hallettsville Garden Club. For many years she was a volunteer with the AARP Tax Aide. She was president of the local Retired Teachers organization as well as the District Teachers organization. She was on the board or president of many of these organizations. In 1994 she was Hallettsville's Citizen of the Year. She was very committed to the First United Methodist Church of Hallettsville.

Beulah is survived by daughters Irene Ellis and husband Leonard Ellis of Dallas, Jean Carpenter and husband John Carpenter of Hallettsville, and Alene Kirklen and husband Chris Kirklen of Kerrville; seven grandchildren: Katie and Ronnie Steffek, Elizabeth Mache, Laura and Edward Ellis-Lai, Jennifer and Nathan Morey, Matthew Brosh, Lee Ellis, and Mark Brosh; great-grandchildren Josh, Cade, and Andrew Steffek, Alice Morey, and Lucy Ellis-Lai; six nieces and nephews and her beloved chihuahua, Tina.

Beulah was preceded in death by her husband, Mack Raymond, her parents, George and Minnie, her brother, Hugh, and sister, Elsie.

The family wishes to thank loving caregiver Rosalie Tobola, Margaret Smolik, Williamsburg House Staff, Stevens Nursing Home, and Lavaca Medical Center Staff, for all their care and concern during her last years of life.

Funeral Service: 2 pm, Sunday, May 29, 2011, at First United Methodist Church of Hallettsville. Visitation: the family receiving visitors from 4pm to 7pm, Saturday, at Kubena Funeral Home. Officiate: Rev. Lundy Hooten. Pallbearers: Matthew Brosh, Lee Ellis, Mark Brosh, Ronnie Steffek, Edward Ellis-Lai, Nathan Morey, and Quinten Christen. Memorials: Friench Simpson Memorial Library, First United Methodist Church of Hallettsville, or a charity of your choice. Burial: Hallettsville City Cemetery.

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