Beulah Reece

Armed with a passion for knowledge and a desire to learn, throughout her life Beulah Reece was dedicated to educating herself and sharing her own wisdom with others. As a mother she encouraged the best from her children, was a patient adviser, and imparted on them a love of learning. As a teacher, she enriched the lives of countless boys and girls, whom often looked back on their time with her as one of the strongest influences in their lives. She was accepting of everyone who she came in contact with and never prejudged anyone. In her ninety years on this earth, Beulah led a life that was rich and full of family, experiences, and love.

Long before highways dissected the southwestern Michigan and subdivisions and shopping malls filled the landscape, was a time when oak trees outnumbered people, deep seas of prairie grass grew tall and wide, and family farms stretched on uninterrupted for acres. It was on one of these farms in Brady Township, that Beulah was born on December 21, 1915. By the time she arrived, farming had long been a mainstay of the rural township in Kalamazoo County, with her parents, Will and Mamie Crouch, being some of the earliest to settle there. Her father spent long hours working the land, while her mother had her hands full with the eleven Crouch children.

The years that Beulah blossomed from a child into a young woman, were also a glorious time in American literature. During this time, legendary authors in American history, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, penned classic novels that are still read in schools to this day. Deep within the heart of Beulah, a love of books, education, and learning was emerging. As an eighth grader, she achieved the highest score of all students in the county on the norming test. Although it wasn't uncommon for girls at the time to give up their education for financial considerations, Beulah worked as a live-in housekeeper for families earning her room and board, so she could attend Vicksburg High School. Her dedication to learning soon paid off when she graduated in 1933 as the valedictorian of her class.

After graduation, Beulah continued down the same path that she was on. Despite the hardships of the depression era, she worked harder than ever over the next several months to earn her teaching certificate from Western Michigan State Normal College. Fresh out of college Beulah took a job at a country school in St. Joseph County where she earned forty dollars a month, plus a five dollar custodial fee. From there she taught at several other country schools, including one in Factoryville where fate would intervene and change the course of her life. In the winter months a man named Paul Reece from nearby Factoryville would stop in to stoke the fire in the one room school house. Over the months it turned out that Paul was also kindling a romance with the teacher, Mrs. Crouch.

The courtship between Beulah and Paul was not as simple as it was short. Soon after it began, their on again, off again relationship was turned permanently on when they decided to elope across the border to LaGrange, Indiana on June 14, 1937. It may have been that a twenty-one year old Beulah was feeling especially bold around that time, only two days earlier she had purchased a car even though she didn't know how to drive. Nevertheless, when the newlyweds returned to Michigan to tell Beulah's mother of their nuptials, her response was, "On again, off again, gone again Finnigan."

Regardless of their brief and sometimes broken courtship, Beulah and Paul plunged into a tremendous love affair that would carry them on the winds of passion for many years. The couple had six children together, five boys and one girl. Several years after they had been married the family moved to a farm that they had purchased just west of Fulton in southeast Kalamazoo County. In addition to the farm, some years later in 1951 they also bought a cabin on Rennie Lake near Traverse City, a getaway that soon became one of Beulah's favorite places to be. Beulah also continued her education earning both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master's degree from Western Michigan University in the early 1960s.

After almost 25 years together, Paul passed away in March of 1962 leaving behind a grief stricken Beulah and their six children. About a year after Paul's death, a reluctant Beulah left the farm and moved the family into Vicksburg. Just as she had most of her life, she worked very hard at raising her children while managing a career at Fulton Elementary School, a part of the Vicksburg School District. As a third grade teacher, she was dedicated to enriching the lives of hundreds of young boys and girls throughout her 25 year career. Many of whom would consider her their favorite teacher years after they were gone. Each year she would proudly exclaim that her current class was the best she had ever had. Despite improbability, Beulah sincerely meant what she told them.

As busy as Beulah may have been as a teacher, she was always able to attend each of her own children's school activities. She made sure that, in their father's absence, she was a strong role model and an encouraging parent. She was so proud of each of them no matter what they did, but took a great deal of pride in the fact that they all pursued careers in education, at least to some degree. When grandchildren came along, she was equally involved in their lives, playing table games with them and instilling the same appreciation for current events and political phenomena that she had instilled in their parents. Later, when she purchased a cottage on Indian Lake, she loved to sit and watch the grandchildren while they fished.

With an aptitude for knowledge, Beulah had a great memory, particularly as it related to spelling and grammar, the sciences, and politics at all levels. She was also a voracious reader, who would pick up anything from novels to medical journals, the latter of which proved helpful when researching any illness she had or medication she took. She also enjoyed traveling, either up north to the family cabin or across the fifty states and around the world; she took in each new experience like a breath of fresh air. A member of the former Vicksburg Mothers Club and Vicksburg United Methodist Church, Beulah got involved with her community as a parent, a teacher, and a citizen. It is no wonder that so many family members would seek out her advice, as she had a keen insight and infinite wisdom. Academic, advisor, mother, and grandmother, Beulah will be dearly missed not only for the many roles she fulfilled, but even more for the loving and forgiving person that she was.

Beulah died on May 23. She is survived by five children; Ronald (Diane) Reece of Three Rivers, Tom (Sandy) Reece of New York City, John (Lori) Reece of Ann Arbor, Janet Reece of Baldwin Park, CA, and David (Kathy) Reece of Kalamazoo. Also surviving her are grandchildren Jeffrey Reece, Tammy Patterson, Jenny (Bryan) Taffee, Leslie (Paul) Littlejohn, Heather (Matt Brosco) Reece, Meghan Reece, Libby Reece, Vivien Reece and Paul and Billy Reece. And she is survived by 11 great grandchildren, brother-in-law, Bern Ackerman and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by all of her siblings including Bernice (August) Roberts, Albert (Lucille) Crouch, Charley (Mary Ellen) Crouch, Wilma (Bern) Ackerman, twin brother, Buel (Lucille) Crouch, Walter (Beatrice) Crouch and Mary (Glen) Storrs, her husband, Paul and son, Jack Reece.

Visit with Beulah's family and friends on Friday, May 26, 2006 from 4:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. at the Rupert, Durham, Marshall & Gren Life Story Funeral Home, Vicksburg, 409 South Main Street. Funeral services will be on Saturday May 27, 2006 at 1:30 pm at the same location, with the Reverend Trent Hammond and Reverend Buff Coe officiating. Please visit Beulah's personal memory page at www.lifestorynet.com where you can share a memory, sign the guestbook or view the Life Story Digital Film. Memorials may be made to the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation.