Our ever kind and gracious mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, great aunt, teacher and friend Patricia Ann Beeson Meyer Hentz went home to be with her Heavenly Father and many of her loved ones who had gone before her on September 4, 2019, at her home in Colleyville, Texas.

She will forever be remembered as a loving wife, mother, and teacher. Known by many nicknames, including Pat, Trisha and Trish, she was a tremendous cook and baker, an immaculate housekeeper, an advanced seamstress, list maker and organizer. She loved cookies and ice cream. She was often seen using an iron, vacuum or dust cloth. She was an extremely avid scrapbooker and card maker. She enjoyed antiquing and decorating her home for different holidays and continuing many long-held family holiday traditions. Trish was also a volunteer 4-H leader for seven years and volunteer religious education teacher for several years. She lived her Christian faith every day, praying consistently for her family and friends. She was always fair, honest and saw the best in everyone, including her most challenging students. She found joy in square dancing, line dancing and singing. Even at age 80, she loved to be physically active and especially enjoyed Tai chi. She absolutely loved when her entire family gathered for her 60th, 65th, 70th, 78th and 80th birthdays.

Throughout her life, she enjoyed traveling, from early trips where she and her three children would pose in front of national park signs to a later trip to the Holy Land and Rome. 

Once she moved to Texas, she became a huge Texas Rangers baseball fan, attending dozens of games in person and often watching them on television. She cheered on the Rangers in person at a World Series game in Arlington, Texas, in 2010.

Trish was born in Cushing, Iowa, to Paul Darrell and Olive Beeson on August 13, 1939. She grew up in Washta, “The Coldest Spot in Iowa.” She attended Washta Consolidated High School, graduating in 1957. In the fall of that year, she was a bookkeeper for Iowa Equipment and Supply Company in Storm Lake, Iowa. In 1958, to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher, she enrolled in Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, where she met her future husband, LaVern Meyer. They were married on June 10, 1961, in Cherokee, Iowa.

Trish began her teaching career in 1960 at Hartley Community Schools as a first-grade teacher. In 1961, she and LaVern moved to Ringsted, Iowa, where she taught second grade for one year before taking a break to start a family. In 1971, after her three children (Larry, Paul and Sheryl) had all started school, she returned to teaching fourth and fifth grades at Remsen Union Community Schools. That same year, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Westmar College in Le Mars, Iowa, where the family lived for 18 years.

Trish was a teacher who truly enjoyed her work and had the ability to bring out the best in her elementary school students. She was known for her highly detailed bulletin boards and lesson plans, beautiful handwriting and a clear “teacher’s voice.”

In 1985, LaVern and Trish moved to Decatur, Illinois, where he taught math at Millikin University and she taught fourth grade at Holy Family Catholic School until 1996. 

Following the passing of LaVern in 1996, Trish moved to Texas to live with her daughter Sheryl and son-in-law Eric Kolb.

In April 2000, she met Jerry Hentz at St. Michael Catholic Church in Bedford, Texas, and they were married on March 24, 2001. The couple loved to visit their many grandchildren, and they also enjoyed traveling together, including a trip to Mount Rushmore and a cruise through the Panama Canal. They were married for 11 years until Jerry’s passing in 2013.

Trish started her journey with Alzheimer’s disease when she was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2008. For nine years, she was part of memory research studies at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Despite the advancing disease, Trish was happy living in the moment and never lost her positive attitude and love for others.

In keeping with her generous and loving spirit, it was her decision to donate her brain to research to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.

The family suggests sending memorial contributions to the North Central Texas Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

The family would like to thank all of the loving caregivers who helped take good care of Trish while she lived at Franklin Park in HomeTown (2012), the Isle at Watermere Assisted Living (2013-2016) and Ellery Arbor Memory Care (2017-2019).

Trish was preceded in death by her parents Olive and Paul Darrell Beeson, brother Thomas in infancy and husbands LaVern and Jerry.

She is survived by her three children, 12 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren:

~ Larry Meyer and Kathe Lehman-Meyer and their children Ali and Andrew of Castle Hills, Texas.

~ Paul and Lisa Meyer of Sheldon, Missouri, and their children William and Jamie Crawford Meyer of Ozark, Missouri and parents of great grandchildren Quentin, Sophia and Phoebe; Joe and Sydney Meyer of Sheldon, Missouri and parents of great grandchildren Wade, Milly, Ally, Flint and Penny; Paul Thomas and Sarah Meyer of Edmond, Oklahoma, and great grandson Daniel; John and Kourtney Meyer of Nashville, Tennessee; David Meyer of Weatherford, Oklahoma; Mary Meyer of Nashville, Tennessee; Jimmy Meyer of Lenexa, Kansas; Daniel, Libby and Eileen Meyer of Sheldon, Missouri. 

~ Sheryl (Meyer) and Eric Kolb of Grapevine, Texas.

She also is survived by sister Mary (Beeson) and Bill Larson of Cherokee, Iowa; niece Stacey and Kelly VanBeek of Brookings, South Dakota, and grand nieces Sydney and Grace; niece Terri and Jeff Friedrichsen and grand nephew Jacob of Cherokee, Iowa; grand niece Emma and Jacob Beyer of Pella, Iowa, and their son Joseph.

Our family is grateful to God for our dear, faithful mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, great aunt, teacher and friend, and we look forward to our glorious and eternal reunion in heaven.

A Celebration of Life event was held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 12 at Ellery Arbor Memory Care at 8100 Precinct Line Road, Colleyville, TX 76034.

A Catholic Mass with an intention for Trish will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, September 20 in Assumption Chapel at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.