William John Beatty (1873-1934)

BEATTY

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Evening Journal February 21, 1934 (page 1)

WILL J. BEATTY DIED SUDDENLY

NATIVE SON OF NEVADA VICTIM OF HEART ATTACK LATE TUESDAY

Will J. Beatty, 60, native son of Nevada died at his home 704 Ninth street, Tuesday evening at 6:10. Death, due to heart trouble and other complications, came very suddenly.

Ill since just before Thanksgiving tie, he had but a few days before returned from a course of treatments at Iowa sanitarium and had been up during the afternoon and visited with his sister Miss Flora Beatty. As she started to help him across the room he grew suddenly faint, sank into a chair and passed away before help arrived.

Deprived of the faculties of speech and hearing through life, yet with an exceptional keen sense of sight and mentality, he had formed a wide circle of friends and acquaintances not only in Nevada, but over the entire county, and he was a familiar figure upon the streets of the city.

William John Beatty was born in Nevada March 22, 1874, a son of John and Susan Beatty, pioneers of Nevada who came here from Ohio. An only brother Frank died in 1881 and the father passed away in 1898. The mother, with the sister Miss Flora continued the home here and died fourteen years ago in June.

Will attended the local schools as a boy and later attended and graduated from the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs, of which Mr. Beatty Sr., was for many years a member of the official board.

After graduating from that institution he learned the printer's trade and for a number of years worked in that capacity of local newspapers.

He had a very keen interest in clean athletic sports and for many years was a well known amateur ball player in Nevada and through that activity extended his acquaintance and circle of friends in all parts of central Iowa.

He had always continued in the family home and after the death of his parents the home had been cared for and his every need and interest watched over carefully by his sister Miss Flora and between them there was an especially close relationship.

In accordance with his home teachings he took an interest in religious affairs and whenever the opportunity afforded, attended services both in Nevada and other nearby cities where the ministers conducted the services in the manner of the deaf people.

Morally he was clean, honest, and upright and he was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him.

A few years ago he had suffered a paralytic stroke which for a time incapacitated him, but he had practically recovered from the effects of that stroke and had been in fairly good health, until about Thanksgiving time, when he was again taken ill and since that time his condition had apparently failed.

The familiar figure of "Billy" Beatty will be missed from the streets of Nevada as probably few others would be missed and his sudden passing will be deeply mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who will be most sincere in their expression of condolence to the beloved sister, who is left alone in her grief.

Funeral services will be held at the home Thursday afternoon at 3:30 with Rev. Joseph M. Kennedy of Central Presbyterian church in charge. Interment will be in the family lot in the Nevada cemetery.