Margaret Anne O’Leary Beam, 97, of Hendersonville, NC passed away on May 28, 2024.
Anne was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on November 8, 1926, to Joseph Aloysius O’Leary of Montgomery, AL and Lucy Millican O’Leary of Rome, GA. She grew up in Shelby, North Carolina with her two brothers and two sisters and graduated high school at age 16. She attended Woman’s College in Greensboro, NC for a year and enrolled in a commercial studies course before returning home to Shelby where she worked at a local hotel for a short time. She then worked at the First National Bank of Shelby for 6 years where she started as a bookkeeper and then went through training to be an IBM operator. She married Augustus Pitt Beam Jr, son of A. Pitt Beam, DDS and May Kendall Beam, on May 19, 1951. They moved to Baltimore, MD in 1952 for Pitt’s work and then moved again to Hendersonville, NC in 1954 where her husband took a job with General Electric as an industrial engineer. She considered her life to be all about her faith and family and she devoted herself to raising her three sons and caring for family members who became ill. She was active in various charities and the First United Methodist Church and assisted with the MYF and teaching Sunday school. She had a lifelong love of nature and enjoyed cooking, working in the yard, and vacations with her family.
In addition to her parents, Anne was preceded in death by her husband, Augustus Pitt Beam Jr; brothers, Joe O’Leary, and Jack O’Leary.
She is survived by her son Augustus Pitt Beam III and his wife, Bridget; her son Joseph Farrell Beam and his wife Heidi and granddaughter Kathlene; her son David O’Leary Beam and his wife Tamer; her grandson Cameron and his wife Amanda; great-grandson Talan; and her sisters Catherine Bradshaw and Susan O’Leary.
A funeral service will be at 11:00 am on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at Jackson Funeral Service in Hendersonville, NC. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will follow the service in the Sunset Cemetery, Shelby, NC at 1:30pm (estimated time due to travel). In lieu of flowers, donations to the First United Methodist Church of Hendersonville would be appreciated.
Jackson Funeral Service is honored to serve the Beam family.