Gerald Becker didn’t mind having all eyes on him, said his youngest daughter, Angie Becker Fears, 51, of Barnhart. The Beckers were members of Eastern Star and enjoyed organizing entertainment for installations and special ceremonies.
“One year there was a Wizard of Oz theme, and Dad dressed as Dorothy,” Angie said. “They laid out the yellow brick road, and here came my dad, skipping in, in his gingham dress with his braids.
“Whatever Mom could envision in terms of theme, music, decorations, my dad was right there in it, bringing the fun. He never said no to being the center of attention.”
Mr. Becker died March 19 at age 86 of a heart ailment. He was the longtime co-owner of E & B Electronics in Festus.
He grew up in Chicago and moved to Pilot Knob as a young teen. He loved basketball and played for an amateur traveling exhibition team called the Egyptian Mohawks during his senior year at Ironton High School, where he was friends with an accomplished baton twirler named Margaret.
“My mom always said she walked down the aisle with him twice, once at their graduation in 1951 and once when they got married in 1953,” Angie said.
Mr. Becker trained in electronics in Chicago for a year and then served in the Army from 1953-55 before he and his bride moved to Crystal City and he went to work for Ed Engel as a repairman. The two men later opened E&B Electronics on Festus Main Street.
The Beckers were involved parents to their four daughters.
“You could always count on him and Mom to be there, no matter the game or concert or recital,” Angie said.
In the early 1960s, the family moved to a home on 6 acres outside Festus.
“They had a big garden, and pigs named Romeo and Juliet,” Angie said. “When it came time to slaughter, Dad couldn’t eat Romeo, and the entire pork selection was given away or fed to the dogs.”
Mrs. Becker was a talented ceramicist and doll maker, and the family built a studio on their property for her business. The family traveled often to International Doll Makers Association conventions.
“I saw a lot of the country from the back of a station wagon or from the window of the E&B Electronics van,” Angie said. “I’d be in the back, reading, and my dad would say, ‘Get up here and look at this! You might never see this again!’”
Later, the Beckers traveled to watch Angie’s sister, Theresa, coach at colleges in Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa.
“Theresa was with the Olympic handball team, and we went to the Olympic summer festival most years,” Angie said. “One year it was in Colorado Springs, and another it was in Indianapolis.”
The family made friends all around the country.
“Anywhere we went with a pool, my dad was in it, and kids would flock to him,” Angie said. “He’d go underwater and let us ride his back like a dolphin. He’d flip us, or toss us into the deep end.”
Mr. Becker had seemingly endless patience with children.
“He could talk like Donald Duck, and kids loved that,” Angie said. “When we were little, he would sit on the floor and let me and my cousins comb his hair every which way.”
Mr. Becker enjoyed fly fishing and antiquing with his wife.
“Dad loved to collect old phonographs, old radios, crank phones,” Angie said. “If there was an antique store or flea market along the way, we would stop and spend hours looking for treasures.”
He played the harmonica and loved watching Jerry Lewis. He was a fiercely competitive card player.
“If you could beat Dad at Rummy, it was cause to throw a party,” Angie said.
He was also a voracious reader, his daughter said..
“I have an image of him in bed, reading his Bible,” she said. “He read about UFOs and had me scared to look up at the sky at night.”
Mr. Becker closed his store in the early 1990s and went to work for Midwest Marketing, from where he retired.
“They converted the upper floor of the studio into an apartment, and as their health declined, they moved in there,” Angie said. “My mom died in 2015.”
Mr. Becker had aortic valve replacement surgery 10 years ago.
“Over time, the heart calcified, and he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure,” Angie said.
He lived at home until May 2019, when he had a seizure-like episode.
“He’d go to Crystal Oaks to rehab, start making progress, then end up in the hospital again,” Angie said. “In October, we moved him into skilled nursing, and he continued to decline.”
He took a sharp downturn the same day the countywide lockdown was announced, but nursing home officials allowed a few carefully screened family members to be with him for his last moments.
“That had been our greatest fear, that he would be alone at the end,” Angie said. “But he was not.”
Angie said her father would want to be remembered as a man of God.
“He was raised Catholic, and thought he might be a priest until he met my mom,” she said. “His love for her changed his course, but it didn’t change his discipleship.
“At 80, he was out delivering Meals on Wheels. It was so important to him to find ways to serve. He loved to visit people, pray with them.
“Faith, family and fun – that was my dad. He was just an amazing man.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.