James (Jim) Arthur Beem 1938-2011

BEEM SMITH MILLER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 6/30/2011 at 22:57:22

Sioux City Journal
22 March 2011

HORNICK, Iowa -- James A. Beem, 73, of Hornick died Saturday, March 19, 2011, at Countryside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Sioux City.

Services will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at Holly Springs Bible Fellowship, 280th and Moville Blacktop in Holly Springs, Iowa, with the Rev. Jim Thomas officiating. Burial will be in Westfork Township Cemetery at Climbing Hill, Iowa. Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the church, with the family present.

James (Jim) Arthur Beem was born Jan. 10, 1938, in rural Hornick to Arthur J. and Irene B. (Smith) Beem. He graduated from Hornick-Holly Springs High School in 1956 and served in the U.S. Navy for two years. He was honorably discharged in 1958 and began farming near Hornick.

He married Merriel D. Miller on July 5, 1959, in Sloan, Iowa. The couple farmed and raised their family in the Hornick area. They divorced in 2002.

Jimmy's farming career began when he was 8 years old, feeding Holstein calves, and watching the trashing tractor and belt for $1 per week. As a teen, Jim was famous for his skill of backing two loaded hay racks, hooked in tandem, into the shed before a thunderstorm hit. He proved to be an innovative farmer in the 1960s, building grain bins for shell corn storage and custom harvesting to pay for combines that replaced corn pickers, and implementing new farming practices like 30-inch rows, 8-row equipment and no-till farming in the 1970s. He raised specialty crops like popcorn and waxy corn.

Jim enjoyed having the whole family working together to improve the farm. He had a passion for watercraft, traveling and camping with his family. He began visiting Florida in the winter and staying in RV parks in his later years. Jim retired from farming in 2003. He was a member of Holly Springs Bible Fellowship.

Jim is survived by five children, sons Jamey of Hornick, Jesse and wife Robin of Mapleton, Iowa, and Joe and wife Shannon of Baltic, S.D., and daughters Debi Beem and Lori Sanders, both of Hornick; 17 grandchildren; four sisters, Evelyn and husband Mel Campbell of Albia, Iowa, Jeanette and husband Gene Koskey of Albuquerque, N.M., Mary and husband Larry Fischer of Renton, Wash., and Nancy Radig of Titusville, Fla.; and one uncle, Robert Smith of California.

He was preceded in death by his parents and an infant son, Jason Roy Beem.

Arrangements are under the direction of Armstrong Funeral Home of Mapleton, Iowa.