Victoria MN Newspaper-Beddors

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“My dad was in the printing business and that’s how I ended up in printing,” said Bill. “My dad was a hard worker. He served in World War I and was wounded in France. He and another guy were the last two captured before the War ended. He homesteaded in Montana with his mother and siblings and then returned to Minneapolis to make his living. When my dad was only 13, he got a job at the printing company and stayed there all his life.” Not unlike his son.

Bill attended St. Thomas Elementary School and St. Thomas Military Academy, graduating in 1945. Favorite subjects? “I didn’t have favorite subjects,” he said. “I was a poor student. Everyone knew they were going into the Service so why bother with it.”

After graduation it was indeed off to the U.S. Marine Corps for two years, 1945 to 1947. “The War was over by then so the Service wasn’t a bad place to be,” said Bill. “In fact, it was great. It gave me an opportunity to travel to Hawaii, see the Pacific, and see the States.”

After the Service he attended the University of Minnesota for two years on the G.I. Bill. “I was not enamored with school,” he said. “My brother and I started a laundry business in Dinky Town near the campus. A self-service laundry was a new idea. It was one of the first ones in the country.”

Not only was it a new idea, but also a big deal. It prospered. “We started several laundries, two of them on campus,” said Bill. “Then I started working at Japs Olson where my dad was working. I wanted to get married and get my life started.”

His thoughts kept turning to the young lady that he first dated during his high school years at St. Thomas.

***

Bea was born in Duluth on November 23rd, 1926, to Charles Francis and Beatrice Ryan Haley, the middle of three daughters. “People called my dad ‘Fran,’” she said. “He was a stock market broker in Duluth.”

“My mother moved to Minneapolis when my father passed away at the age of 32 years,” said Bea. “I really don’t remember my father. I have a picture of him on a horse so he probably liked horses. He died in an accident, from a gun shot wound. He was cleaning a new gun that he wasn’t used to, and it went off. It was pretty tragic. My mother had just had a baby, her third little girl.”

Bea attended first grade for a short time at the Basilica of St. Mary. “Soon we moved to another house in a safer neighborhood,” she said. “My mother remarried a man named Cecil Taylor, a friend of the family. He was a fantastic man. We were blessed. Imagine marrying someone with three little ones! He was a trader at the grain exchange and worked out of Minneapolis. He hadn’t been married before. He was like a perfect English gentleman. My mother could absolutely do no wrong in his eyes. If we children asked him for permission to do something, like go skating, he’d say, ‘Do you think your mother would approve? We can’t keep anything from your mother.’ So then we would think it over and oftentimes stay home.”

What was Bea’s mother like? “My mother was a strict Irish lady, a fabulous cook who liked to entertain. She was a good homemaker,” replied Bea. “My mother was a nurse before marriage.”

After a semester at the Basilica school, Bea attended Ascension in South Minneapolis, then three years at Kenwood, three years at Holy Angels, one year at Jefferson Junior High, graduating from West High in 1945. The list of schools followed grade changes, not the family’s moving about from one place to another.

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