Delsia Beasley, 88, Florida

Delsia Beasley, 88, of Lecanto, Fla., and formerly of Champaign, Ramsey and Gibson City, died at 10:53 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at New Horizon Senior Citizen Home in Inverness, Fla.

Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday at Prairie Cemetery in rural Ramsey, with Norris Price officiating. Friends and family may gather at the cemetery at 10:30 a.m. Miller Funeral Home in Vandalia was in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Beasley was born on May 1, 1920, in Hagarstown, the daughter of William Hoke and Florence Hoffman Hoyle. She married Bronson Beasley in 1942, in Jackson, Mo.; he died on May 31, 2000.

She was a retired teacher, having taught 32 years in Gibson City, Fayette County, LaSalle County and Jackson County schools in Illinois. She was affiliated with the Baptist Church. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Southern Illinois University, and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois. She enjoyed bird watching, gardening, needlework, traveling, crossword puzzles and reading.

She is survived by a son, Greg Beasley of Gibson City; daughter, Martha and her husband Robert Dodd of Lecanto, Fla.; brother, Rex Hoyle and his wife Evelyn of St. Jacob; sisters, Shirley Lacey of Effingham, Agnes and her husband Ernest Stelmar of Spring Valley, Calif., Ann and her husband Don Randol of Venice, Fla., Lela and her husband Herbert Matthews of Pana, Norma Hoyle of Vandalia, and Eva and her husband Virgil Taylor of Pana; three grandchildren; one great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; and many cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, one brother and one sister.