BEERS, Mel S.

The Wickenburg Sun, Wickenburg, AZ August 26, 1949 MEL BEERS DEATH AT 37 MOURNED BY THIS COMMUNITY Sorrowing friends paid their last respects to Mel S. Beers Wednesday morning as his body lie in state at the Wickenburg Chapel. The body was taken to Phx Wednesday afternoon for cremation and on Thursday afternoon. Mrs. Beers took the ashes by plane to Chicago. Funeral services will be held Friday at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Highland Park, Illinois, where Mel was born October 2, 1911, and where he spent the greater part of his life before coming to Wickenburg early in January, 1947. Burial was to take place beside the grave of his father, the late Herbert Page Beers in the North Shore Garden of Memories not far from Lake Forest, Ill. DEATH came to Mel last Monday night at 9 o’clock at Community Hospital in Wickenburg where he had been a patient most of the time since June 16. Towards the last, he suffered intense pain which he bore with great courage and fortitude and throughout his long illness the valiant fight he put up for his life inspired his family and the multitude of friends he had acquired in less than three years as a resident of Wickenburg. COMING here in January of 1947 to become associated in the ownership of the Hassayampa Butane Corporation, Mel Beers quickly displayed his tremendous capacity for making and holding friends. It is no exaggeration to say that at the time of his death, he was one of this area’s most popular and well known young businessmen. During his residence here he also developed a vast fondness for this section of Arizona and a love for Wickenburg which he frequently voiced with deep feeling. The Town of Wickenburg and the State of Arizona can ill afford to lose Mel Beers. A NUMBER of months ago, Mel, in association with his brother, Herbert P. Beers of Chicago, purchased the interest of Norman Bennet in the Hassayampa Butane Corporation and the name of the concern was changed to Beers Bros. Mel’s extensive banking and financial experience, and his outstanding business ability were substantial factors in developing that Frontier Street store into one of the town’s leading business establishments. THE SYMPAHTY of the entire community is extended to the surviving community is extended to the surviving widow, “Pat” and the two young sons, Peter, 9, and Page 7. Mel is also survived by his mother, Mrs. Emily Beers of Highland Park; a sister, Mrs. Stuart Hoffman of Black Earth, Wis., and two brothers, Herbert and Burton W. Beers of Niagara Falls, N.Y. MRS. BEERS plans to remain in the Chicago area for the time being, at least, with her parents Mr. And Mrs. William Keeley of Evanston and sister, Mrs. John Corcoran of Winetka.