WAYNE BEAMAN

MINDENMINES- Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Bath-Naylor Funeral Home in Pittsburg, Kan., for Wayne Everett Beaman, 69, Mindenmines, who died Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Visitation will be held prior to the service, beginning at 1 p.m. Burial will follow at the Barton City Cemetery in Liberal.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Missouri Prairie Foundation at https://moprairie.org/donate/ or by mailing funding to: Missouri Prairie Foundation, c/o Bank of Missouri, P.O. Box 856, Mexico, MO 65265-0856.

Survivors include his wife, Rita and three children, Nathan and wife Tabitha, Corey and Lane and husband Wesley; five grandchildren, Melanee, Jonathan, Ethan, Elam and Eisley and siblings, Laynetta and husband Cecil, Glenda and husband Samuel, Lowell and wife Beverly and Patti and husband Jim.

He was preceded in death by his parents and two baby sisters, Wanda and Reba.

Mr. Beaman was born June 28, 1952, in Colorado Springs, Colo., to Rex and Eva Beaman. He was a member of the Liberal High School graduating class of 1970 and married his soulmate, Rita, on May 18, 1974 in Yuma, Colo. They were happily married for more than 47 years. He and his wife moved between Colorado and Missouri over the course of a decade, finally landing in Mindenmines and raising their family over the past 30 years.

He attended college in Denver and Sterling, Colo., and Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan. He entered the Air Force in 1971 and was stationed at Grissom Air Force Base in Peru, Ind. He served as a general purpose vehicle repairman and earned the National Defense Service Medal. Upon leaving the Air Force he continued laying brick, which he learned from his father in his early teens. He was a master brick mason of nearly 55 years, working in Joplin and the surrounding area for the majority of his career before he was hired as foreman for MGM Masonry out of Kansas City, Kan.

Mr. Beaman was actively involved in his community, including serving as den leader of his children’s Boy Scout Pack 87 out of Frontenac, Kan.; training out of Crowder College for wildland firefighting and serving as a volunteer firefighter for the Mindenmines Volunteer Fire Department.