Edna Earl Beech Bennett

Edna Bennett, affectionately known as “Gee Maw”, passed away peacefully on October 27, 2024, at her Southlake home of nearly 30 years with her husband, Joe Bennett, faithfully by her side. Edna was 82. She was born in Commerce, TX in 1942 but moved to Grand Prairie as a young girl. Edna was a member of Eighth Street Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, where she was a pianist in her teenage years. She graduated from Grand Prairie High School in 1960.

Edna married her first love, John L “Johnny” Beech, in 1960, wearing a tea-length hot pink tulle wedding dress. What a great statement to the independent sassy spirit she lived her entire life. She and Johnny were married for 45 years until, his death, in 2005.

Edna married her second love, Joe Bennett in 2016. Edna and Joe worked together in the early 1970s and reconnected on social media in 2014. Edna commented to her daughter, Lisa, that she “felt like a teenager again” when describing their courtship. Joe proposed to Edna in front of family and friends, and of course, she said “YES”.

To know Edna was to know she was smart, independent, hard-working, dependable, and involved in many organizations and clubs over the years. She was always put together. Edna was a pillar of strength and leader in almost everything in which she was involved. Everyone loved being around her and being a part of her posse.

Edna enjoyed being busy and being in charge….and she was good at it. Edna worked as a secretary and executive assistant at various companies in her 20s, 30s, and 40s, including secretary to the Police Chief in Flower Mound and dispatcher for the Flower Mound Police and Volunteer Fire Departments. She was also active in the local CB club, "REACT", for many years, where she was known as “lemon-drop”. In the mid 1980s, she left her executive assistive position at a CPA firm to help open and grow Beech’s Overhead Door, Inc. with Johnny. She still ran the operation at Beech’s Overhead Door, Inc. in Southlake with her son, Terry Beech, until she suffered a stroke in August 2023.

Edna wasn't much of an outdoorsy person but in her younger years, she loved to fish for crappie. She spent many hours on Lake Palestine and Lake Grapevine fishing….and occasionally she would do a little water skiing. She caught most of her crappie while fishing from the marina boat slip with her sister, Ruby. After loading up on crappie, Edna and Ruby would host a "fish fry" to feed family and friends. She wasn't the gardener in the family, but for many years they had an acre garden in the backyard and she would sit for hours under the cottonwood tree shelling purple hull peas.

One of Edna’s lifelong passions was bowling, which she enjoyed for over 50 years. In addition to being league secretary for various leagues for decades, she also served in many other officer positions in the local leagues and officer and committee positions at the county and national levels. She bowled at Golden Triangle in Euless and Valwood in Carrollton for years and when Triangle Bowl (now AMF Lewisville) opened in 1979, she was one of the first to bowl league there and continued until just a few years ago. Edna was secretary of Rising Stars for 12 years, in addition to being secretary of Monday Night Ladies, Wednesday morning Coffee Breakers, Thursday night Rising Stars, Thursday night Timber Pins and Friday Night Fellowship. She served on the boards of directors of the Denton Women’s Bowling Association, the Denton County Bowling Association, and in 2005, with the merger of both associations into the Denton County USBC (United States Bowling Congress), she served as president for 12 years. She was also a member of the national USBC Advisory Board for two years. Edna was inducted into the Denton County USBC Hall of Fame in 2020.

For many years, Edna was a dedicated member of the Grapevine Elks Lodge 2483 giving countless hours serving the vision of the Elks by organizing social events, volunteering at Elks events, helping cook or serve from the kitchen and/or anything thing else needed by the Elks Lodge. She was chairman of the Entertainment committee for eight years and was also elected to serve a five year term as a Trustee. During her time as Trustee, she was part of an all-woman Trustee Board—the first all-woman board, which was a historic moment for the lodge. Edna was awarded "Elk of the Year" in 2011-2012.

Some of Edna’s other loves and hobbies included line dancing, playing cards, and listening to her family sing Karaoke. She and Joe played gin rummy for hours almost daily in addition to playing “skit skat” (31) with friends several nights a week. She never missed an opportunity to invite her family and friends to join her for a night of Karaoke. Edna always watched Dallas Cowboys football. She sold squares and ran football pots for Cowboys games with bowling and Elk friends for many years.

Gee Maw loved to feed anyone and everyone. She often received requests for her chicken salad, guacamole, meatloaf, and mayonnaise cake. It wasn’t a holiday without Gee Maw's amazing banana pudding, chicken and noodles, marshmallow peanut butter puffs, and peanut brittle. And, of course, the family always had old cool whip or butter tubs on hand for leftovers to take home. A lesson she taught all her children and grandchildren.

Edna is survived by her second love and husband of eight years, Joe Bennett; her son, Terry Beech and wife, Karen of Grapevine; her daughter, Lisa McAden and husband, Tommy of Southlake; five grandchildren, Heather Schwartz, Tiffany Tavares, Candice Burke, Caden McCarroll, and Laney McAden; and four great-grandchildren, Jonathon, Jackson, Nolan, and Luca.

Edna is preceded in death by her first love and husband, John L Beech; parents, Emmitt and Gladys Burnett; brother, Ray Dee Burnett; and sisters, Ruby Trogdon, Mary Ruth Morgan, and Linda Widner.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in her honor to a cause or charity of your choice.

Funeral service will be held at 10 am Monday, November 4, 2024, at Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home at 5725 Colleyville Blvd, Colleyville, TX 76034.

Family visitation will be held 4 pm to 6 pm on Sunday, November 3, 2024, at Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home. For those attending family visitation, please feel free to wear your favorite sports jersey, bowling jersey, association shirt, name tag/pin etc to honor her passion and dedication to her favorite sports teams and organizations.