Thelma BECK

BECK, THELMA (née POVEY) (b. 22 Dec 1900; d. April 1983). Church worker.

Thelma's father Alfred Povey invented and patented a wire mattress weaving process and having left Victoria, commenced a bedding and furniture factory in Perth. Thelma Povey worked for many years in the mattress-making section of the factory. At the Church of Christ in Perth, Thelma met and married Will Beck, a radio technician with Wesfarmers Ltd and later the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

From a very young age Thelma's life and activity was bound up with the church. As a Sunday school teacher and leader of a girls' club she visited non-Christian homes and formed contacts to invite to church. She and her husband held monthly social evenings in their home for many years and up to forty young people looked forward to those occasions.

After Will died in 1962 her hospitality continued. Conference guest speakers, missionaries and young people seeking accommodation in a Christian home were welcome guests. For about 15 years every Christmas Day she invited residents of aged folks homes without families and single persons from the church to share in a Christmas feast and fellowship. She regularly visited guests at Joondanna and Carinya Aged Persons' Homes run by Churches of Christ and was a member of the Homes Board tor seven years.

For 35 years she was the treasurer of the Women's Auxiliary Conference of Churches of Christ in WA. Life membership of the Executive was conferred on her in 1965. She was also treasurer of the Women's Federal Conference tor three years.

Thelma loved to sew, knit and crochet and for many years she had a talent table, selling her work, the proceeds going to the church. In the local church she was active in the Christian Women's Fellowship of which she was treasurer for 50 years.

Gordon A Ewers, A Century of Worship and Witness (Perth, nd)

GORDON A EWERS