Abbeville - Dana Cornelia Hyde Beatty died on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 2:00P.M. in her home in Abbeville, Louisiana. She was 97 years old. She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Frank Mallory Beatty of Abbeville, Louisiana, originally, of Crowley, Louisiana. The funeral service will be at 1:00P.M. on Saturday, February 27 at David Funeral Home, 2600 Charity St. in Abbeville. Visitation will begin at 10:00A.M. until the time of the service. Interment will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery in Crowley. The family requests, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to Hospice of Acadiana, Inc. 2600 Johnston Street, Suite 200, Lafayette, Louisiana 70503-3240, or to College of the Ozarks, P. O. Box 17, Point Lookout, Mo. 65726, Phone 800-222-0525, www.cofo.edu She was born October 25, 1912 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents were Chester A. Hyde and Cornelia Wallar Hyde Lella. She was preceded in death by her sister, Florence Hyde Freeland of Welsh, Louisiana, and her brother Chester Hyde, Jr. of Shreveport, Louisiana. She is survived by her two daughters, Dana Beatty Main of Abbeville, Louisiana and Florence Beatty Wallace and her son in law Kenneth Wallace of Colleyville, Texas, her two grandsons Dr. Mark Wallace of St. Louis, Missouri and Scott Wallace of Mililani, Hawaii, and four great grandchildren, Kaitlyn and Lauren Wallace of St. Louis, Missouri and Ken and Sean Wallace of Mililani, Hawaii. Mrs. Beattys childhood was spent on one of Americas last homesteads, near the Saskatchewan border of Canada. Malta, Montana on the Milk River was the closest town. She often said she and her sister learned to ride horses before they learned to walk. The horses were wild and roaming the range when her father rounded them up for use on the farm. He saw to it that there were horses for his daughters. They came to Montana in 1915, which, as it turned out, was the beginning of several years of drought. The pioneer life was not for everyone. Her mother left in 1921 taking her baby brother. The divorce court awarded her father custody of his two daughters. She had fond memories of things he tried to do for them such as carving dolls out of fence posts and getting feed sacks so they could sew their clothes. He taught them how to cook on a wood stove and they both became outstanding cooks. After suffering seven crop failures, in 1926 he packed all his belongings and with his two daughters in an old car, headed back to his mothers home in Decatur, Illinois. Mrs. Beattys uncle, Dr. Wendell Doc Hyde was an Osteopath and an early settler in the town of Crowley, Louisiana. Dr. Hyde had a farm north of Crowley and suggested that his youngest brother might do better raising rice in south Louisiana than wheat near the Canadian border. So in 1927 Mrs. Beatty and her sister left their grandmothers home in Illinois with Dr. Hyde who brought them to his home in Crowley. The aftermath of the infamous 1927 flood was still evident. The first glimpse of Louisiana of the two young girls from Montana was of the flooded areas from that disaster. Their uncles wife, Aunt Tee , was heavily involved in relief efforts to help those affected by the flood. Her father was beside himself with joy! Here was a place where there was waterplenty of water! Dana Hyde and her sister, Florence Hyde attended Crowley High School and both graduated in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression. Her father had the money for one semester at Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) which she attended. In July of 1933 her sister, Florence, married John Ed Freeland and they later settled on a farm near Welsh, Louisiana. That same year on December 2, 1933 Dana Hyde married Frank Mallory Beatty of Crowley who had a new job with a rice milling company called Louisiana State Rice Milling Company. (It has since merged with Riviana). They lived in Jennings, La. where their first daughter, Dana, was born in 1935. In 1937 her husband was transferred to the companys main office and they moved to Abbeville. The following year their second daughter, Florence, was born. Dana Hyde Beatty has lived in the same house since 1937. She always said she had had enough moving around. She and her husband were members of the First Presbyterian Church. She taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and was active in the Ladies Bible Circle. She volunteered her time generously when her daughters were in school. She was a member of the Womans Club of Abbeville and served as president for one them. Her aunt had made a lifetime membership in Eastern Star available to her, and when she died, she was the oldest member in Louisiana. Together, Mr. and Mrs. Beatty were supporters of Abbey Players in Abbeville and early symphony efforts in Lafayette that later became the Acadiana Symphony. But mostly, she was a homemaker. She was always engaged in some project in the house or on the property. The family wishes to express gratitude to Mrs. Beattys sitters who worked tirelessly to give her comfort in her final days and hours: Delores Mitchell, Enola Connor, Deborah Baudoin, and Mary Sneed.
