Billie Lee Beckman

Mrs. Billie Lee (Reding) Beckman, of Branson, Missouri, born on April 17, 1928 in Wichita Falls, Texas, to Roy and Ruth Wallace Reding, passed away at age 90 on July 19, 2018 in La Habra, California. She initially attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri and was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority there. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton in 1984 and continued her graduate work there towards an M.A. in English. She worked as a Special Education teacher at Leffingwell Elementary School in Whittier, CA until retiring at age 76 in 2004. Billie was the beloved wife of the late Gene W. Beckman, and they would have celebrated 66 years together just one day before she passed away. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Jack Reding and Edward Reding; sisters, Virginia Reding Gray and Helen Reding Workman; and grandfather, William Yancy Wallace. Billie is survived by her sons, Gene Beckman, Jr., Joel Beckman, and Richard Beckman; daughters, Ruth Christina Beckman, Shelly DeSimone, and Juliet Beckman; and sisters, Juli Reding Hutner and Judy Reding Siebert. She was the proud and endlessly loving grandmother of 17 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Billie was both a Girl Scout leader and a Camp Fire Girl leader for her children and their friends. She enjoyed genealogy; she founded, edited and produced one of the earliest geneaology newsletters, The Relative News, which is regularly cited today in geneaology forums. Her foreign travels included New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada. She regularly attended East Whittier Friends and then Granada Heights Friends Church for over 40 years, and she was a dedicated member of the Wednesday Women's Bible Study Groups there. She was appointed to and served on the La Habra Heights Historical Society. Her family, especially her children, will miss her playful, teasing sense of humor which often reached mischievous levels. Her favorite joke about the lion who asks the mouse why he is so puny to which the mouse replies, "Well, I been sick!" will always be a favorite of theirs as well. The family invites donations in Billie's name to the African Bible College which is sponsored by Granada Heights Friends Church. A private graveside service will be officiated by Pastor Bob Webster, on Tuesday, July 31 from 11:00 to 12:00 p.m. at Brea Memory Gardens, 455 W. Central Ave, Brea, California, 92821.