BEEKS, 99, EDUCATOR, DIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992                   TAG: 9201170314
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BEEKS, 99, EDUCATOR, DIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Margaret J. Beeks, a teacher for nearly half a century and for whom an elementary school in Blacksburg is named, has died at the age of 99.
"She taught for 45 years and never missed a day," said Curtis Gray, a retired Montgomery County educator who was taught history and English by Beeks in the seventh grade.
To Vickie Wohlford, Beeks was like a second mother and a true friend. Wohlford, who was Beeks' neighbor in Blacksburg for 25 years, said Beeks was most inquisitive.
"She's up in heaven asking questions," Wohlford said with a smile.
Beeks died Wednesday evening in Mount Pleasant, S.C.
She had come to Blacksburg Middle School, which is now the high school, as a teaching principal in 1938 after teaching in her native South Carolina for 20 years.
She was like a mother to everyone, students and fellow teachers alike, Gray said.
"She could put the fear of God in you," Gray said, but she never needed to strike a student to get her point across.
Beeks once said she didn't consider herself an artist, but Wolhford's home is full of her paintings. And many paintings of old schools that no longer exist can be found in present-day Blacksburg schools, Gray added.
She spent all day, every day, at school and had her classes planned out completely at the beginning of each school year, he said.
"She was the most positive human being I've ever met in my life," said the Rev. Ray Allen of the Blacksburg Baptist Church. When Beeks joined the Baptist Church in 1938 she started the Sunday school class and taught it for 48 years, Allen said. She always encouraged growth in the church and welcomed Allen, a young man in his 30s, as the new pastor in 1974.
Allen caught the bug to travel from Beeks and she always was excited to hear about his travels, he said. He visited China in 1984 "and she had a fit to hear about it."
"Too many people of all ages close their minds and aren't learning," Beeks once told the Post-Courier newspaper in South Carolina. "I believe in using time, making your days full days. People have choices. They can choose to stay interested in life."
And Miss Beeks, as she was known to most, couldn't have been more interested in life and sharing it with others.
She traveled the world twice, devoted half her life to teaching and all her heart to the church.
Beeks had journeyed to the Holy Land four times, and wrote numerous diaries of her travels.
"She taught me to always be excited about the new, and that the world is one big community," Allen said.
She retired in 1963, the year the elementary school was named for her. When she left, she said she wanted to drive past the school in a convertible, so Wohlford and a friend arranged for one to take her around the school and through the town.
Her retirement day was declared Margaret Beeks Day and all the pupils and teachers had to write notes on their thoughts of Miss Beeks.
"I told her that if there are committees in heaven, I hope you're on the welcoming committee," Wohlford said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB