JOHN B. "Jack" BECKER

KAINZ, BECKER, MORMANN, STEINDL, SCHOENING

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 2/19/2003 at 18:33:03

John B. Becker

Telegraph Herald - Friday, February 14, 2003

DYERSVILLE, Iowa - John B. "Jack" Becker, 62, of Dyersville, died Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003, at home, after a long illness.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Francis Xavier Basilica, Dyersville, with the Rev. Mark Osterhaus officiating. Burial will be in St. Francis Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. today at Kramer Funeral Home, Dyersville, where there will be a parish scripture service at 7 p.m.

He was born on July 30, 1940, in Elkader, son of Bernard and Eleanor (Kainz) Becker. He married Joyce Mormann on May 1, 1965, in Dyersville.

He graduated from Xavier High School and attended Loras College. He served in the Army National Guard from 1959 -1965.

He was the lead guitarist in his rock and roll band, The Night Riders. He was a professional wood carver for the Thomasville (N.C.) Furniture Co., until he returned to Dyersville to farm and establish his own woodcarving business. He was the creator and owner of the Becker Woodcarving Museum. He was well known for numerous sculptures including religious sculptures that adorn area churches.

Surviving are his wife, Joyce, a daughter, Abby Becker, of Chicago; a son, Jude Becker, of Dyersville; his mother, Eleanor Becker, of Elkader; two sisters, Joyce (Frank) Steindl, of Stillwater, Okla., and Kathy (Joe) Schoening, of Rockford, Ill.; and two brothers, Gary (Barbara) Becker, of West Seneca, N.Y., and Paul (Linda) Becker, of Dyersville.

He was preceded in death by his father, Bernard, in 1986.