Stories from the First Cathedral 49

On this day, I start my new assignment as half-time Dean of the Cathedral of Our Merciful  Saviour. I was the full-time Dean from 2001 - 2013. I look forward to serving this holy place I call the First Cathedral. This Cathedral is at the roots of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. The faith community of our state is deeply rooted in our brothers and sisters of the Indigenous people who walked this earth before the people from other lands occupied this space by force and prejudice. I hope to continue the stories of the First Cathedral giving honor to all cultures of faith. 

Isabel Beckley

Isabel Beckley is the opposite in many ways to Anna Cole Theopold, who I featured last week. I was blessed to know Isabel while serving the Cathedral as the Dean my first time. Isabel was a saintly woman of the First Cathedral who died Sept 13, 2014 at the age of 103. 

Every month or more, I would visit Isabel in the home she occupied for many decades in Faribault. She lived in a humble, but comfortable older wood sided house surrounded by her gardens of flowers and produce. A typical visit would start in her living room filled with family pictures. The next stage would take us to her kitchen table for holy communion followed by a reward of coffee and homemade cookies. 

My favorite story from Isabel is about her family when she was growing up and the First Cathedral connection. She said her family lived in a downstairs apartment at the Guild house on the Cathedral grounds. Her father was the caretaker who serviced the heating system, cleaned the inside rooms and maintained the grounds of the two buildings. She said it was a family affair to keep the Guild House and Cathedral looking attractive and functional. She told me that she walked through Bioshop Whipple's house across the street when she was a young girl in the 1920s. The house was left by Evangeline Whipple in 1910 (the story about the "See" house will be coming up in the future). Isabel was the only person alive I knew who could tell me about the "See" house, as it was destroyed in 1934.

Isabel Beckley was very dedicated in representing the humble servant side of the women of the First Cathedral. Isabel was not rich  nor did she have the advantage of high society or have a famous father or mingle with women's clubs who were always in the newspapers. Isabel was from the Faribault High School class of 1930. She married Paul Beckley in 1943 and they raised two daughters. Isabel was a drug store clerk in downtown Faribault. In the background at the First Cathedral, she organized the Lenten soup lunches. She was in the Hospital Auxiliary, worked with the Senior Center, helped at the Hostman nursery school at the Guild House and gave her time at the Clothes Closet. 

Isabel Beckley was such a loving, gentle, and upbeat woman. I believe my visits with her were more beneficial for me than for her. She was truly a humble soul who was a model of Christ's love.