Wayne R. Beasley, age 94, retired Marshalltown Chief of Police and a member of this country’s Greatest Generation, passed away peacefully early in the morning of Saturday, December 17th, at the Central Iowa Healthcare.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home with Pastor Loren Strait of the Central Christian Church officiating. He will be laid to rest with full military honors by the Veteran of Foreign Wars Post # 839 and by American Legion Post in the Marshalltown area in the Riverside Cemetery, procession led by police escort. Visitation will be held one-hour prior to the services on Wednesday at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to his family to be distributed amongst the many causes that Wayne believed in. For condolences, please visit www.mitchellfh.com. Ph. 641-844-1234.
Born on March 24th, 1922, in Van Meter, Iowa, he was the son of Arthur and Corbel (Clearwater) Beasley. His family moved to Newton and later Marshalltown where he graduated from the Marshalltown High School in 1940. In the early 1940’s, Wayne worked at Fisher Controls in Marshalltown until serving our country honorably in WWII in the United States Navy on PT Boat Squadron. He came to truly value life after nearly losing his own when his PT boat caught fire and sank, leaving him and shipmates in the water for four hours until another PT boat arrived.
On August 23rd, 1942, in Lancaster, MO., he was united in marriage to Maxine Matilda Mertka. They made their home in Marshalltown all of their married lives where he so proudly cared for the safety of this community as a police officer for the City of Marshalltown from 1948 until retiring as the Chief of Police in 1978.
Mr. Beasley was a man of integrity and was devoted to many organizations including: Marshall Masonic Lodge AF&AM #108, Oddfellows Lodge, Iowa State Police Association (Past-President), the Shriners, Za-Ga-Zig Shrine of Des Moines, Tin-Lizzie Patrol, Harry C. Harter VFW Post #839, Central Christian Church, past board of the Salvation Army, recipient of the Iowa Governor’s Award for volunteer hours given at the IVH, a founding member of the Jerry Rabiner Home for Boys in Ft. Dodge and many other area causes. He packed a lot into his 94 years and in his spare time, he enjoyed fishing, coin collecting (he designed the coin for the Central Iowa Coin Club), summers at the cabin in Canada, woodworking, playing cards with friends, cribbage with Blanche and watching “Gunsmoke” and “Judge Judy”, and of course loved his miniature dachshund. He was proud to be a shirt-tail relative of Bob Feller of Cleveland Indians fame and from his birthplace of Van Meter as well as famous frontiersman, Wyatt Earp.
Left to celebrate the memory of this amazing man are his longtime companion of 14 years, Blanche Haynes, his children: Judy Rae (Dave) Couser of Ankeny, Pamela Kay (Gary) Kutzner of Marshalltown and Rick (Sherry) Beasley of Montezuma; grandchildren- Jeff (Barbara) Couser of Lansing, IL, Jill (Chris) Christensen of Union, Jen (Matt) Posusta of Ankeny, Kim (Jamie) Huseboe of Rhodes, Rick Beasley, Jr. of Waterloo and Richelle Beasley of Marshalltown; eleven great-grandchildren, and many, many friends and contemporaries.
In death, he rejoined his beloved wife Maxine, his parents and sister, Nelda Geerdes.
