Funeral services for Matilda Beckman will be on Friday, November 18th, 2:00 p.m. at the Lakes United Methodist Church in Lake View with Rev. Rick Johnson officiating. Burial will be at the Ferguson Cemetery in Lake View under the direction of the Farber & Otteman Funeral Home.

Visitation is from 4:00-8:00 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17th, at the Farber & Otteman Funeral Home in Lake View.

Matilda (Smidt) Beckman, age 87, of Lake View, Iowa, passed away on Tuesday, November 15, 2005, at Black Hawk Life Care Center in Lake View.

Matilda was born on October 20, 1918, near Glenvil, Nebraska, the daughter of Fred and Minnie (Krenzien) Smidt. She attended country school through the eighth grade. The family moved to a farm near Lake View in 1934. She worked in and around Lake View as hired help, worked at Hastings, NE, ammunition plant through WWII, then back to Lake View as a waitress at Cunningham Café, where she met and married Henry Beckman, June 22, 1946, at the Methodist parsonage in Lake View. They were blessed with two children: Gary and Sandra.

Matilda was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and sister. She enjoyed being with her family and looked forward to their visits. She loved spending time sitting on the front porch, and kept busy with her crocheting projects and sewing. Matilda was a member of Lake United Methodist Church in Lake View.

Survivors include two children: Gary Beckman and wife Bettie of Lake View, and Sandra Nilles and husband Dan of LeMars, IA; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; two sisters: Clara Freese of Tulsa, OK, and LaVon Karstens of Lake View; three brothers: Carl Smidt, Irwin Smidt and wife Wilma, and Harvey Smidt and wife Annabel all of Lake View, and many extended family members.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and two sisters: Velma Ulven and Della Buse.