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January 20, 2009

Guest column, Jacqueline Potter: Caterer leaves legacy of accomplishments

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Tue Jan 20, 2009, 09:11 PM CST

By Jacqueline Potter

Globe guest columnist

A great soul has passed from this earthly life. Beatrice Howell, the famous and much-loved Carthage caterer and chef, died at the age of 102 on Jan. 4, in St. Louis.

She would have been 103 on Jan. 16.

Only a few Carthage and Joplin friends and admirers learned of her death by word of mouth or e-mail on Jan. 6 and were told her funeral would be at 11 a.m. the next morning at the First United Methodist Church in Carthage, where she was a faithful member for many years.

During a time set aside for acknowledgments, one woman rose to say: “Bea was a people person. No matter what kind of party you were having, when Bea ... walked into your home, you knew everything was going to be all right. And if you didn’t know exactly how everything should be done, she did. ... Not only was she a wonderful cook, Bea was just ... full of light.”

In her early to mid-90s, despite arthritis, she was still baking the Parker House rolls for which she was famous. She was also making her tiny cinnamon rolls, frying chicken and cooking many other special recipes in her home and small kitchen on East Sixth Street in Carthage.

She hated to give up her business, but sold her home and moved to St. Louis in 2004 to live with her daughter, Lois Howell Harris, and other family members.

Beatrice Georgia Barker was born on a farm east of Neosho in Newton County on Jan. 16, 1906, and was 11th among 12 children. She attended a segregated school at Newtonia and in 1924, when she was 18, married Ollie Jefferson Howell, a farmer. The couple had a son, James Warren, and by 1928, a daughter, Lois Allene. They lived and farmed near Newtonia, where the children went to school.

In 1938, they moved to Jasper County and lived on a farm southwest of Carthage. Ollie and Bea worked together for the Frerer Dairy.

By the early years of World War II, Bea began to supplement the family income by selling her baked foods, fried chicken, casseroles and salads from her home, and in 1945, she had established her own catering business.

With hard work and determination by everyone in the family, both Warren and Lois graduated from Lincoln High School in Carthage and Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Warren became an architect and engineer, and Lois taught elementary school and later took graduate courses at the University of Denver in Colorado. In 1980, she became director of the Head Start program in St. Louis and St. Louis County, where she ran the Early Childhood Development classes and received several awards.

Sue Russow told me Beatrice Howell began training her as one of her assistants and waitresses in 1970. She described how Bea and Charles Peiter, manager of Carthage Memorial Hall then, worked together at that time to quote prices, cook and serve banquets, Christmas dinners, company parties and receptions.

During a half century of knowing Beatrice Howell, I never heard her complain, criticize anyone, utter a word of gossip or ever act ruffled or upset.

I treasure some of Bea’s recipes. I can make her clam dip, ham balls, baked wild duck, beef tenderloin and roast prime rib, but I have never been able to make her Parker House rolls or cinnamon rolls so they came even close to hers.

She truly knew how to produce marvelous food for every type of occasion from picnics to formal dinners.

Beatrice Howell exhibited a rare serenity I will never forget. It is staggering to consider the pleasure and happy times she brought to so many people in Carthage and the surrounding areas of Jasper and Newton counties by using her considerable talents and working so hard.

I can’t think of anyone I admire more.

Jacqueline Potter is an author. She lives in Carthage.

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