Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 3-20-18

Local
Meetings
Family Support Group Meeting
The Family Support Group Meeting for Enhance the Chance will be held on Saturday, March 24th, 12-1 p. m., at Rowlett Park.
Enhance The Chance supports children and families with Sickle Cell Anemia.
The Howard W.
Blake High School
Class Of 1967
The Howard W. Blake Class of 1967 meeting will be held on Saturday, March 24, 2018, at 11 a. m. at the West Tampa Public Library, 2312 W. Union St.
For more information, contact Lee Reddick at 813-885- 3723 or Gwen Andrews at 813-248-1071.
Longtime Educator Passes
A longtime Hillsborough County Public Schools edu- cator was laid to rest last week.
Ms. Gwendolyn Smith Beam, the daughter of Freddie Smith and Lucy Nettie Stephens, was born in Blakely, Georgia and raised in Tampa, Florida by her grandmother and grand- father, Edith and William Webb.
Ms. Beam attended Middleton High School where she was the captain of the women’s basketball team, graduating in 1957, and received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Education from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1961.
She married her college sweetheart, Fred L. Beam (deceased) in Atlanta, Geor- gia and later relocated to Tampa. Two children were born from this union, a son and a daughter. The couple lived a passionate life to-
MS. GWENDOLYN SMITH BEAM
gether as educators, but eventually divorced. Ms. Beam taught elementary ed- ucation for a total of 31 years, one in Fulton County, Geor- gia and thirty in the Hillsbor- ough County School System at Potter Elementary and many years at Mendenhall Elementary, before retiring in 1992.
For the last 18 years, Ms. Beam was a member of
Without Walls Church, where she remained until is- sues affected regular atten- dance.
She was the matriarch of and dedicated to her fam- ily. She was blessed with one grandson, Calvin Rucker, a college student, whom she adored and to whom she de- voted much of her time and attention during her retire- ment.
During her life, she espe- cially enjoyed dancing, movies, family events, and shopping. Sharing holidays and special occasions with her family were extremely important to her.
Her immediate survivors are her son, Fred M. Beam, daughter, Mildred Beam, Esq., and grandson, Calvin M. Rucker. At her request and to honor her wishes, a private, graveside service was held on Friday, March 16, 2018. (See obituary in this issue)
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