Senator William S. Beardsley View All Years

WILLIAM SHANE BEARDSLEY

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Governor William Shane Beardsley, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

William Shane Berdsley, the first Iowa Governor to die in office, was born at Beacon, Iowa, May 13, 1901, the son of William and Carrie Shane Beardsley. His untimely death occurred as the result of an automobile accident near Des Moines, Iowa, November 21, 1954.

He attended public school at Birmingham, Iowa, and was graduated from the Birmingham High School and the Bowen Institute of Pharmacy and Chemistry. He was not able to attend college, but made himself one of the best informed men in Iowa and the friend of education in all of its branches.

In a special election, he was elected to the House of Representatives to fill the term of E. H. Felton, who died in December 1947, and he served as Warren County’s representative in the Fifty-second General Assembly. He previously had served as State Senator from the Clarke and Warren County district in the Forty-fifth, Forty-fifth Extra, Forty­sixth, Forty-sixth Extra, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth General Assemblies of Iowa. In 1948 he was elected Governor of Iowa, and twice was re-elected, being one of three Iowa Governors to be elected three times.

He was a member of the Methodist Church, Lions Club, the I.O.O.F., the American Academy of Political Science, and Masonic bodies. He greatly loved children and they, in turn, reciprocated his affection. At the time of his death he was a board member of the Warren County Society for Crippled Children and Adults.

At the age of 21, he came to New Virginia, Iowa, with his wife, the former Charlotte E. Manning of Birmingham, and bought a small drug store, which he continued to operate until his death. It was there that he met with his neighbors and friends every election eve to receive the returns. Later he bought farm lands in Clarke and Warren Counties, and spent his rest periods at his farm home. He applied the principles of soil conservation to his 900-acre grain and stock farm where he eliminated streams and gullies by installing an extensive drainage system and leveling fields, bringing into new cultivation vast areas of land.

The life of Governor Beardsley typified the real spirit of America in action, the rise of the common man from a normal, hard-working American boyhood through the ordinary plain life of a country merchant and farmer to fame as Governor of a great state.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by four children: Blaine of New Virginia, Mary (Mrs. Henry F. Schieg) of Appleton, Wisconsin, Charlotte (Mrs. Doyle E. Stikel) of New Virginia, and Dan, a junior in veterinary medicine at Ames, and five grandchildren. A son, William, died in childhood.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-sixth General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of Governor William Shane Beardsley, the state has lost an honored citizen and a faithful, useful public servant, and the House, by this resolution, would express its appreciation of his long service, and tender its sympathy to the members of his family.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House and the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family.

J. O. WATSON, JR.,

GUS T. DUESTER,

RAYMOND D. BREAKENRIDGE,

Committee.