Lucille "Lu" Beck

After battling illness for a year, Estella Lucille "Lu" Beck of Columbus died peacefully in Lincoln on November 28, 2018, at age 82. She was surrounded by family and left this world satisfied that she had lived a good life.

Estella Lucille Clarey was born August 9, 1936, in Merrill, Iowa, a twin and the ninth of 11 children born to John Francis and Esther Imogene (nee McCorkell) Clarey. Raised in the family's farmhouse near Merrill, she forged a bond with her siblings that would endure her entire life. After graduating high school and working for an optician in Sioux City, she met Dennis Beck of Hinton. The couple fell in love and were married on October 14, 1967, at Ellendale Church. Three children soon followed: Eric Ray, born in 1969, Kelly John, in 1970, and Patricia Anne in 1971.

The family moved around the Midwest, and Lu was a housewife and loving stay-at-home mom to her children during those years. They eventually settled in Columbus, where Lu found her spiritual home at St. Anthony's Church. As her children were growing up, she was an avid supporter of them and their activities, rarely if ever missing one of their games or contests, and she was an active member of her church, serving in the St. Theresa Sodality and the Catholic Daughters and as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist.

Lu worked at the Columbus Manor as a bookkeeper full time for years and later part time as a receptionist. As she and Dennis settled into retirement, she took delight in new activities in addition to the old ones. She eagerly looked forward to her weekly card games and to Friday nights at the VFW with her dear friends, to whom she was fiercely loyal. Most of all, she loved the time she spent with adoring family: trips with her beloved husband, reunions with her large extended family, lunches and weekends with her siblings, and getting together with her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren, with whom she bonded over food, games, and fun. They will all miss her presence dearly.

Though the last year of her life was interrupted by illness, Lu faced those hardships with her characteristic dignity and determination. She will be remembered forever by her family and many friends.

Lu was preceded in death by her mother and father; by her sister Donna Jeanette Vondrak; and by her brothers, John Francis Clarey Jr., George Frederick, Paul Alfred, Richard Anthony, Raymond Howard, and Daniel Clarey. She is survived by her husband, Denny Beck; by her sisters Patricia Mary Graham, Elizabeth Ann DeRocher, and her twin, Esther Lucene Sitzmann; by her three children and their spouses, Eric Beck and Robyn Gammill, Kelly and Laura Beck, and Patty and Troy Kassmeier; and by her 11 grandchildren, Isabel Beck, Martin Gammill-Beck, Gabriella Beck, Luke Beck, Alice Gammill-Beck, Olivia Beck, Anne Marie Beck, and Abigayl, Sam, Cate, and Tess Kassmeier.