Catharine Louise (Friend) Beach

Tribute

Catharine Louise Beach, 100, passed away on January 29, 2022 in Mount Vernon, Texas.  She was born on April 5, 1921, to Asa J. and Nellie Mae (Mottinger) Friend in Hugo, Colorado. Catharine was the youngest of eight children, with three brothers and four sisters.  She was nicknamed Biddy by her brother Deane and carried that name for about 60 years.

She married Jack Beach at the age of 16 and had four children, Ed, Louise, Jackie, and Mary Jo. She was always supportive of all their activities no matter what was required.  A loving mother and the best cook ever.

Catharine worked in a carbon black plant in Borger, Texas during World War II with her sister-in-law, Hazel Friend, an extremely hazardous job which would be unthinkable now.  The men were all in service and women took on many hard, important jobs to keep the country going.  She later moved to Sinton, Texas for about three years after the war and then started moving from place to place for the next six years, just following work from place to place.

She settled in Farmington, New Mexico from about 1953 until about 1961 working briefly in a clothing store where she developed her skills as very effective salesperson. After moving to Ft. Defiance, she spent several years there where she started buying and selling Navajo rugs and Indian jewelry.

Catharine became a Avon representative during this time and spent about 20 years in the business, advancing to the position of District Manager where she supervised the selection and training of representatives over a very large district.  During this time, she chose to be called Kathy which is her name today to all but a few old friends.  One of her fondest Avon memories was a weeklong trip to Paris, France. 

In the late 1960’s she moved to Show Low, Arizona and lived there until 2001.  She retired from Avon and became a top salesperson for a high quality woman’s clothing store and ended her sales career working in a western wear store in nearby Pine Top, Arizona.

She moved to Mount Vernon, Texas in 2001 where she attended First Baptist Church.  Since 2014 she has resided at Mount Vernon House, where she was Queen of the residents (coming from the fact that she was chosen for that honor in 2019, the most recent time it was designated.) 

Preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Jackie Bader; son-in-law, Bobby Broughton; daughter-in-law, Joyce Beach; three brothers and four sisters.

She is survived by her son, Ed Beach of Mount Vernon, TX; daughters, Louise Broughton of Mount Vernon, TX and Mary Jo Nelson of Tempe, AZ; sixteen grandchildren, twenty one great grandchildren and seven great great grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, February 02, 2022 at Collvins Memorial Funeral Home at 1:00PM.  Interment will follow at Stouts Creek Cemetery in Saltillo, TX.

The service will be live streamed via Facebook live please go to our Collvins Memorial Funeral Home Facebook page to watch the service.

 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Catharine Louise (Friend) Beach, please visit our floral store.

div.ptwp-tree { min-width:400px; float: right; } A Memorial Tree was planted for Catharine

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You are using an outdated web browser that does not support this video. Your browser does not support this video format. You should be able to view it in Chrome, Safari or Internet Explorer. $(document).ready(function(){ if ( false === supports_h264_baseline_video() ) { $("#vdfmtnt").show(); $("#vidplyr1").hide(); } }); Services Visitation Wednesday
February 2, 2022
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Collvins Memorial Funeral Home
912 Tx. Hwy. 37 S.
Mount Vernon, TX 75457 Funeral Service Wednesday
February 2, 2022
1:00 PM
Collvins Memorial Funeral Home
912 Tx. Hwy. 37 S.
Mount Vernon, TX 75457 Committal Wednesday
February 2, 2022
2:00 PM
Stouts Creek Cemetery
County Rd 3354
Saltillo, TX 75457

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Catharine Louise (Friend) Beach, please visit our floral store.