Aloma Beard

Aloma J. Beard Aloma Jean Beard of Neodesha, Kansas, died Sunday, January 21, 2007, at the Wilson County Hospital. She was 77. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, January 24, 2007, at the United Methodist Church under the direction of Penwell-Gabel Loran Fawcett Chapel. Interment will be at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Fawn Creek Cemetery east of Tyro, Kansas. Pastor Larry Kaiser and the Reverend Kris Brinlee will officiate. Friends may call at the funeral home Tuesday from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. The family will greet friends at the church Wednesday from 10-11 a.m. The daughter of Elwyn and Henrietta Van Dolah Sillin Sutton, she was born November 6, 1929, in Pratt, Kansas. Aloma lived in Preston, Kansas for 12 years until her family moved to Independence, KS where she graduated from high school in 1947. She received her teaching certificate from Independence Junior College in 1949. She later received her bachelor of science in education degree from Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg in 1959. On August 13, 1950, she was united in marriage to Walter Beard in Independence, Kansas. He survives at the home. She was employed as an elementary teacher and librarian in the Neodesha school system from 1949 until her retirement in 1989. During her teaching tenure, she taught in South, Central and North Lawn Elementary Schools. Her main love was teaching kindergarten. She was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Independence, KS, and served on the Kansas Conference Committee of the Seventh Day Adventists. She also was a member of the National Education Association, the Neodesha Arts Association, and the Independence Historical Society. She was a member of and served on the boards of directors of the W. A. Rankin Memorial Library and the local chapter of the American Red Cross. She was a volunteer at the Wilson County Hospital. In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sisters, Esma Fields of Wichita, KS, and Sharon Bradley of Independence, KS; two foster twin children, Rex Robson of Topeka, KS, and Ray Robson and his wife Mary of Mountain View, MO; and many nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Lloyd. Memorial contributions may be made to the W.A. Rankin Memorial Library or to the Seventh Day Adventist World Missions and may be left at the funeral home. To leave a special message for the family, please visit www.PenwellGabel.com.