Fred Karner Beeson

1929 - 2026

Fred Karner Beeson, aged 96, passed away on March 16, 2026. Born December 17, 1929, he was preceded in death by his parents, Fred Karner and Anne Nolen Beeson and his wife, Harriette Mathewes Beeson. He is survived by his daughters, Anne Beeson Royalty and Meg Beeson Wallace, their husbands Bob and Jim, and his grandchildren Nolen and Ginna Royalty and Jack and Fred Wallace as well as many nieces and nephews who were very dear to him-Betsy & Ed Kelly, Pat Olhausen, Nancy Boatwright, Mary Kenner, Cary and Logan Broussard and Louis and Lisa Jehl-and all the other dear children and grandchildren of the Mathewes clan. Fred's life was also defined by many lifelong friendships through college, the Georgian Woods, church, farming, the bookstore and community which brought him and others great joy.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Fred was a proud graduate of The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee and regaled his children with stories of the pranks the boys played there. Though he embraced Webb's motto to "never do anything on the sly," his stories of stoking the furnace to the smoking point so that classes would be cancelled, might be seen to contradict that. These experiences, as well as the time he spent on his Aunt Betty's ranch in Wimberley, Texas, were formative for his adventuresome spirit- a lifelong love of the outdoors, animals, horseback riding and card games. He later passed along some of his poker and craps-shooting knowledge to his teenage grandchildren and their friends.

Fred served in the Air Force and the National Security Administration (NSA) as a cryptographer during the Korean War. To get to and from Maryland from Memphis, he often hitchhiked and for years could entertain with stories of the characters he met along the way. When he returned from the service, he attended Southwestern at Memphis (Rhodes College) where he met and married the love of his life, Harriette. Far from the straight-A student that she was, he did value learning and kept portraits of favorite professors hanging in his office through his final years. After college he was the campaign manager for a good friend's local political campaign. He studied every precinct to determine which votes to target; an early example of data analytics.

In 1968 Fred and a group of four other Episcopalian men tried unsuccessfully to persuade Memphis mayor Henry Loeb to reconsider his approach to the striking sanitation workers. The key lessons Fred passed on to his children from these efforts were the importance of negotiating face-to-face and listening carefully, because in this case the workers' demands involved basic human needs that carried a clear moral obligation. In September of that year of turmoil in Memphis, he was stabbed 10 times as he fought off an intruder in his home in the middle of the night. The assailant was never caught and the motive was never determined.

Fred began his career as an insurance and pension plan salesman for State Mutual Life Insurance Agency, but his entrepreneurial spirit was unstoppable and he eventually tried other ventures. What started as a hobby-growing soybeans with his farming partner in Nesbit, Mississippi-led him to explore commodities trading. Fred was an early adopter of programmable calculators and home computers starting with an Apple IIe and VisiCalc. From this, he started a business to sell computers to farmers. He attempted to develop computer tools that could help farmers make complex decisions about planting, trading and farm subsidies. He also advised small businesses on enhancing their profits with computers in his venture "MicroManagement Consultants." Fred also shared his knowledge of computer technologies as an instructor at Southwest Tennessee Community College for seven years.

In 1984, he and Harriette purchased Burke's Book Store, which they owned and operated for 17 years. They loved attending the yearly American Booksellers convention and charmed many authors to visit Burke's for book signings, including John Grisham, Anne Rice, Madeline L'Engle, Amy Tan, Peter Guralnick and Charles Frazier. For their contribution to the community through Burkes, the Germantown Arts Alliance awarded Harriette and Fred an Arts and Humanities medal for their "Advocacy of Southern Letters" in 1998.

Beyond his career, he enthusiastically embraced many hobbies and interests-dog-training, fishing and fly tying, "riding to the hounds," sailing, photography (including a home dark room), potato cannons, gardening (as a Master Gardener), orchids, World War II history, oyster roasts and cooking. He was early to the Turducken craze and enjoyed talking about the cooking project as much or more than eating the finished outcome.

Since 1958, Fred was a devoted member of the Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis and held many leadership positions there. Fred was also a master turkey fryer and one Thanksgiving, with a dear friend, fried more than 30 turkeys for members of the congregation. In 2003 he received the Bishop's Cross for Service to the Episcopal Church from the Diocese of West Tennessee and when he moved to Michigan, Holy Communion presented him the "Senior Warden Emeritus" award.

Fred had a kindness, generosity, and exuberance that continued to draw people in, even in his later years. Fred, until we meet again, may the good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand.

We would like to thank his caregivers at Glacier Hills in Ann Arbor as well as Wendy Sims who sensitively cared for him in the last 5 years of his life. A memorial service will be held for Fred at the Church of the Holy Communion; 4645 Walnut Grove Road; Memphis, Tennessee 38117 on Wednesday, May 6 at 11:00am. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to the Church of the Holy Communion.