Charlotte Helen Beck

Charlotte Helen Linnerson Beck was 85 years old; sunrise December 14, 1938, in Nance County, Nebraska and sunset June 20, 2024, at Windsong Northridge Memory Care in Greeley, Colorado. She was born to Charlotte “Lottie” Olson and Oscar Linnerson. She grew up on her family’s farm near Genoa, Nebraska.

Charlotte graduated from Genoa High School and attended what was then known as the Nebraska State Normal School in Kearney to become a teacher. She taught in rural one room schools and at least one town school in Nebraska. Charlotte enjoyed teaching all the grades. One school she didn’t want to return to for a second year because “it was boring” and she wanted more variety. Her favorite grade to teach in town schools was 2nd grade and her least favorite was 5th grade. 

On June 17, 1962, in Genoa, Nebraska, Charlotte married Dewey “Bud” Lee Beck, Jr. They were married 52 years until his death in 2014.  Bud would work for the US government in Valentine, Nebraska, Ohio, and Golden, Colorado. During their retirement years, they lived in Windsor and Greeley, Colorado. Charlotte and Bud had one daughter, Sheryl. After teaching, Charlotte did in-home daycare for about 10 years, starting in the early 1970s. This was so Sheryl would be around other children while growing up as an only child.

Charlotte’s interests included writing letters to her sisters and mother almost weekly starting in college and choosing and sending greeting cards for special occasions.  She enjoyed listening to country music and watching soap operas, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune. Charlotte and Bud traveled to well over half of the 50 US states and to Mexico. She wasn’t fond of Mexico, asking when buying walking shoes, “why can’t they just talk American?” 

Charlotte made friends wherever she went; she’d strike up countless conversations in line at the store, in doctors’ office waiting rooms, and running errands around town, especially while living in Golden. Charlotte enjoyed many coffee and lunch get-togethers with friends.  Charlotte liked living in Golden because it was so walkable; she took Sheryl by wagon or sled to get groceries.  Charlotte learned to swim and ride a bicycle when she was 40 years old. She was a Plumb Farm Learning Center and Astor House Museum baking volunteer making dozens of cookies for events and volunteer breaks that Bud and Sheryl could not sample.

Charlotte and her mind could be at odds. Mental illness would impact her starting in her young adult years being the reason she and Bud didn’t ranch in Nebraska as they had planned. Charlotte’s depression, as science advanced, would be called manic depression and then bipolar disorder. She endured painful and traumatic hospitalizations, treatments, and medications. In 2018 doctors said that Charlotte had dementia and a series of falls resulting in broken bones needing surgeries and poorer judgment led her to move to memory care in 2019.

Survivors of Charlotte include her daughter Sheryl Ann Beck, spouse of Christian "Scott" Kippen of Greeley, Colorado, and her sisters, LeVere Linnerson Crum of Camarillo, California and Winifred “Winnie” Linnerson Peterson of Lincoln, Nebraska. Their parents always called the three sisters “The Girls” and today, now and then, their children call them that. Charlotte is also survived by 9 nieces and nephews. She was proceeded in death by her husband, parents, brothers-in-law, a niece and nephew.