Hank Beasley: Once an Arrow, always an Arrow!

By Carole Kelly

     A birthday party last spring once more showcased one of retired teacher Hank Beasley’s talents. Although he no longer routinely decorates cakes, he didn’t hesitate to retrieve his decorating tubes and produce a cake for his mother Vivian Beasley’s 90th birthday celebration.

     While the cake was the highlight the party, there were also many other birthday party enhancements throughout the festive home.  The Beasley household is filled with interesting collectibles and showcases a seasonally-decorated tree throughout the year, proclaiming celebratory events and holidays, including Christmas, of course, and also St. Patrick’s Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving.

     The versatile Beasley, who has traveled many miles as a tour leader, retired from teaching in May 2014 after a thirty-eight-year career.  However, his call to teach continued, and he served as a substitute teacher for six years.

     Beasley claims a fifty-five-year association with Clinton Public Schools that halted with the COVID-19 pandemic. He has missed only two graduations throughout the years and, to this day, continues to attend the ceremonies. He attended Clinton schools from grades seven to twelve and then was connected as his siblings attended the schools while he was in college.  Add in teaching years and substitute teaching, and he sums it up with, “Once an Arrow, always An Arrow!”

     Beasley toured Europe for six weeks in 1973 after studying at Hinds Junior College and before continuing his college studies at Mississippi College, where he earned the bachelor of education degree.

     “I did my student teaching at Clinton High School (CHS) under the supervision of Bob Monroe and Ada Horton,” recalls Beasley.  “Friends of my brother Manuel were in my classes, and it was hard to for them to call me ‘Mr. Beasley’ instead of ‘Hank.’”

     He received the Student Teacher of the Year Award at his graduation in 1975.  He then earned master’s degrees in history and English at Mississippi College. In 2000, he was certified by the University of Central Florida to teach European history.

     Other than a year teaching at New Hebron High School, he taught his entire career at CHS, where his subjects included Mississippi history, civics, English, U. S. History, American government, world history, honors English, mythology, creative writing, humanities, global studies, world geography, Mississippi writers, law education and advanced-placement European history.

     Beasley also sponsored numerous extracurricular activities; began several organizations, including a chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving; and served as emcee and judge of pageants and debates. A founding member of the YMCA Model United Nations, he started the CHS Model Security Council Chapter.  When he retired, the Hank Beasley Outstanding Bill (Resolution) Award was established at the United Nations Program.

     “The joy of teaching is guiding students to enjoy learning about history and mythology and making it relevant and interesting for them, leading to their being inspired to carry on more research,” he states.

     “To see smiles when they understand how history and different events have impacted our lives—that’s a joy,” he declares.

     In his spare time from teaching, Beasley honed his cake decorating skills.

     “My mom had baked a birthday cake for one of my brothers, and, as she started the decorating phase, I kindly suggested that I could do a better job. She handed over the icing tube, and my love of cake decorating was born.”

     Favorite Beasley cakes with fond memories include birthday cakes for family, friends and students; wedding cakes for his siblings, Milton, Manuel and Sandra; 25th and 50th anniversary wedding cakes for his parents; and a 50th anniversary cake for maternal grandparents that included a three-tiered center cake and ten separate cakes representing their ten children that were connected to the center cake by arches.

     Married to Patricia Dianne (Patty) Kemper in 1982, who else could make the bride and groom wedding cakes but the groom?

     Beasley has also shared his expertise by teaching decorating classes.  A Co-Lin Junior College culinary class enhanced his catering skills, but that endeavor came to a close when it interfered with his teaching.

     Beasley discovered that traveling was one of his favorite things on that six-week tour of Europe in 1973.  He sponsored domestic and overseas student and family tours for many of his teaching years.

     “A three-week Student Exchange Program to the Soviet Union took place in 1989,” he recalls.  The tour was marked with lost luggage and Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas students had to make do with what they had in backpacks and what students from Florida shared.  Luggage rested in a Copenhagen baggage department for three weeks before returning home.

     Two, three and four-week tours from 1992 to 2018 have included travels to Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hawaii, a Caribbean graduation cruise, and a Washington, D.C., presidential inauguration tour.  He has been on all continents except Antarctica.

     “Too cold,” he smiles.

     Beasley has many memories of special sites, some enjoyable, others evoking more somber thoughts. He has visited the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp, talked to survivors, and seen the empathy evoked in his students. He has toured many monuments, visited the Berlin Wall, the Arlington National Cemetery and other sacred sites.  Walking where historical figures have walked and being asked to lay a wreath at Washington’s tomb at Mount Vernon are among his many memories. He swam and snorkeled at the Australian Great Barrier Reef with Megan and walked on the D-Day beaches of Normandy with Brandon.

     Luggage loss, an accidental stop and an inadvertent visit to a nude beach in Greece, pigeon incidents and accidents, and a tossed chamber pot in Rome are among the memories that were not planned parts of tours. Beasley says he prefers to forget the worst of them but, on a more positive note, he recalls, “I did win a hula contest in Hawaii.”

     The loss of Patricia Dianne Kemper Beasley (Patty) came after numerous health issues were faced over the years.

     “A heart attack took her from us on a journey to heaven September 25, 2009,” he shares.

     He treasures memories of a gondola ride in Venice and climbing the Eiffel Tower with her, as well as a Caribbean cruise.

     Additionally, a bucket list wish that Patty insisted her family honor resulted in Beasley, daughter Megan and son Brandon taking a 2018 ten-day trip to France, enjoying Paris and Disneyland Paris, as Patty had wished.

     Health problems have been challenges for the family, and cancer has been a part of their lives; he, Megan and Brandon have undergone treatment and are cancer-free today. His father, Barney Beasley, underwent cancer treatment and died in January 2009.  Since 2020, Beasley has been taking care of his mom, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

     Hank Russell Beasley’s testimony: “At seventy, I have had so many opportunities in life as a son, husband, father, sibling, uncle, teacher, mentor, friend, tour leader, and, yes, even a cake decorator.   I am thankful for all the blessings God has bestowed on me and my family and know that, as long as God and his son Jesus are preparing the pathway for me to travel in life, I am going to follow that path.  With God all things are possible. God Bless America.”