Ramona 'Mona' Vae Beck

Ramona (Mona) Vae Beck, 77, of Peterson, Iowa, died Saturday, April 24, 2010, a rainy, Iowa spring day, her favorite kind, at St. Luke Lutheran Home in Spencer after several years of respiratory illness. She was born Mona Vae Hokanson August 22, 1932, in St. Peter, Minnesota, to Ione (Johnson) Hokanson and Henry Hokanson and moved to Peterson in 1943 with her parents. She graduated from Peterson High School in 1950. She was married to Richard D. Busby from 1957 to 1968 and lived in northern and southern California and Denver, Colorado. She married Eddie Beck Jr. of Sutherland in 1970, and they would have celebrated their 40th anniversary on December 19 of this year. Mona Beck worked as teller in the Peterson State Bank in the early 1950s, as a personal assistant and bookkeeper for banks, manufacturers, and other businesses in California and Colorado, and as bookkeeper for Quality Equipment in Peterson. She served for many years on the board of the Kirchner French Memorial Library. She was tireless reader, a sharp wit, a fine cook and excellent baker who collected cookbooks and recipes all her life. She loved her family, good conversation, songbirds, good literature, Trivial Pursuit, films, and Broadway musicals, especially The Music Man. Among her heroes were playwright Meredith Wilson, author Dorothy Parker, filmmaker Ken Burns, and Judge Judy. She is survived by husband Eddie Beck Jr. of Peterson; sons Drake Hokanson and wife Carol Kratz of La Crosse, Wisconsin; Drew Beck, wife Laurie and their daughter Anjali of Madison, Wisconsin; by brother Jon Barry Hokanson and wife Barbara of Grayslake, Illinois; sister Claudia Simon and partner George Sanderson of Webb, Iowa. She is also survived by nieces Cathy Lenz of Arnolds Park; Chris Ewald and husband Gary of La Porte City, Iowa; Carrie Calhoon and husband John of Spencer; nephew Tukkar Hokanson and wife Anita White of Bellingham, Washington, plus ten great nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family wishes to establish memorials for a bench at Oakland Cemetery in Peterson, to support the Peterson Community Response Unit and the Prairie Heritage Center.

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