Interview with Dad and Mom: May 2012

Interview with Francis and Deniece Beck (March 2012):
1.  What was your favorite dinner growing up?  Deniece:  potatoes, gravy, vegetables—we raised sheep, calves and learned to do or do without.  Francis:  We had no frig and no running water.  Favorite meal was break, milk, and chicken.  We milked 17 cows.
2. Tell us about when you went to school together?  Deniece was a junior and Francis was a senior and they met in seminary in Shelby.  We went to a seminary roller-skating party.  Francis first teased Deniece, then flirted.  Deniece would kick Francis in the shins because he teased her.  In P.E. class she walked in her gym class and showed about her posture.  Francis teased her about his and she’d kick him back.
3. Tell us about when you proposed?  Francis came home from BYU and parked by the old high school.  Deniece told her he was marrying another guy so he proposed to her.  Francis knew that her testimony was strong and he knew that he wanted someone strong in the church.  Francis couldn’t go on a mission because it was during the Korean war and only one person per ward could go on a mission.
4. What did you do for fun?  Deniece:  We had no phones.  She remembers when she was out in the field playing on her stick horse.  A guy came out and asked her out and she put her stick horse away and decided to grow up.  Francis:  He played a lot of baseball.  He had a horse growing up and helped with the chickens and sheep.  He swam in canals, ditches, and the snake river.
5. Tell us what you remember about Grandpa Otto and Grandma Elta Beck?  (by Francis) My mother was very short, 4’8”, well-endowed.  Her philosophy was to have dinner ready after church so she’d leave church to prepared it.  She served in the Relief Society and she served her whole life.  My father loved to eat bridge mix.  He had chocolate covered nuts a lot.  His brother joined the church and came to the United States.  His family was worried about what was going on in Germany at the time of Hitler so they followed and joined the church later.  Otto was in the boy’s choir and a great singer.  He was very laid back. 
6.  Tell us what you remember by Grandpa Ivan and Grandma Nora Davis:  (by Deniece) My father was a big animal person.  He could train and tame any animal.  Grandma was so sweet and a cuddler.  She always had cookies in her cookie jar.  Deniece worked the fields with her father (when he didn’t have his boys yet).  She helped plant the fields and the potatoes.  Later on in his life he got very active in the church.  Grandma was the one who took them to church.  She served as Relief Society president and Stake primary president.  She gave birth to Monte at age 42, so Deniece did a lot to raised Monte, so Monte and Deniece were always close.