Lois Becker

Lois Leora Becker, formerly of Woodbine, Iowa passed away at the St. Joseph's Assisted Living Center at Polson, Montana on October 31, 2012 at the age of 94 years. She was born on September 13, 1918, at a farm west of Dunlap. Her parents were Charles Martin and Neva Whaley Martin. She was the third child in the family that included her brother Lloyd and her sister Dorothy Martin.

Lois and her family lived on farms at several locations in the Woodbine area. She attended local country schools, and graduated early from Woodbine Normal School in 1935, after participating in a program that allowed her to teach school upon graduating, but she had to wait until 1937, when she was eighteen, to do so. She taught at country schools near Dunlap and Woodbine until 1942 and enrolled in telegraphy school and worked for Union Pacific Railroad as a telegrapher and train railroad agent stationed at Medicine Bow, Wyoming from 1943 through the end of the Second World War in 1945. When the war ended, Lois attended college for a time at the University of Northern Colorado, before returning to Iowa. After attaining her teaching certificate, she began teaching school in country schools, and served as a teacher at several local country schools.

On April 9, 1950, Lois married Myron Becker of Dunlap at a small ceremony at the home of her friends Ben and Lillian Minter at Medicine Bow, Wyoming. She and Myron returned to the Woodbine area, where she taught school and he farmed. On March 16, 1951, they became parents with the birth of Dale Myron Becker, their only child. Lois continued to teach school, primarily in Lincoln Township at the Lincoln Number 9 School adjacent to the land where they farmed. She was not only a teacher; she also helped Myron on the farm; taking care of livestock and working the farm on his equipment. At the same time, she always maintained flowers and a large and diverse garden and canned vegetables each year. She also loved being outdoors in the summer during school breaks, hunting for mushrooms in the spring and raspberries and blackberries later in the summer.

After years of gradually filling the requirements for a teaching degree through night school classes, correspondence courses and summer classes sponsored by regional colleges and universities, she attained a Bachelor's Degree in Education at Dana College in August 9, 1963. After teaching in several local country schools, she began teaching sixth graders at Woodbine Community Schools in 1959, a position that she continued until her retirement in 1983. Lois dearly loved children and teaching them, as her long teaching career, spanning forty-two years, attested to. She touched the lives of hundreds of students during her career. Her many former students in the Woodbine area are a testament to her devotion to education. Many of those students continued to stop by and visit and reminisce in her later years. She was always interested in them, their families and what they were doing.

In retirement, she continued her love for gardening each summer. She maintained her love of gardening throughout her entire life, continuing to grow a good crop of huge tomatoes and peppers into her nineties. She and Myron also loved to travel back to Wyoming and Colorado almost yearly to visit old friends there. They also enjoyed traveling to Montana to visit their son Dale, his wife Marilyn and their beloved grandchildren, Kelli and Marcus. As Myron's health failed in the 1980s and 1990s, she was always there as his caregiver and driver. When he passed away in 1998, she lived for a time on the farm north of Woodbine before moving to Woodbine. Due to declining health, she moved to Polson, Montana in 2010 to be nearer to her family. She lived independently until December of 2011, and then lived at the St. Joseph Assisted Living Center at Polson until the time of her death. She enjoyed socializing with her new friends and the staff there, as well as keeping in touch with friends at Woodbine.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Ed and Arminda Whaley; parents; sister, Dorothy Martin; brother, Lloyd Martin (and his wife Florence); aunt and uncle, Iva and Walter Long; and her husband Myron, the love of her life. She is survived by her son, Dale Becker and his wife Marilyn of Polson, Montana; granddaughter, Kelli Becker of Portland, Oregon and grandson, Marcus Becker and his wife Jossolyn of Kalispell, Montana; brother-in-law, Warren Becker and his wife Connie of Defiance, Iowa; niece, Diane and husband Ken Adkins of Council Bluffs; as well as many other family and friends.