Lois Jean Childers Rutherford Beaty, 86, died on Monday, March 2, 2026.
No public services are planned. Plummer Funeral Home is assisting the family.
Mrs. Beaty was born on Aug. 20, 1939, to Edie and Bud Childers. She lived a charmed life playing with her many aunts, uncles and cousins at Mom’s house in Hillsboro, and was soon joined by a little brother, Larry. They enjoyed pulling each other in a wagon and chasing the caboose of the train that ran behind the house, yelling “flare, flare” to the conductor in hopes he would throw them one. During the war, the family moved to South Carolina so that her father could help the war effort by painting airplanes. She generously used her fifth birthday candles to wish for an end to the war, and on May 9, 1945, Allied victory was declared in Europe.
She married Robert Rutherford in 1961, and together they attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. They had three children, Ty, Lisa and Angi, before later divorcing.
Mrs. Beaty earned her bachelor of science degree in psychology in 1984 and was soon swept off her feet by a Texan, Jake Beaty. They split their time between West Columbia and Litchfield, where she worked at Echelon Hydraulic. The couple were married in 1996, shortly before his passing.
Mrs. Beaty was a lifetime vegetarian and was known to survive happily by licking peanut butter off a spoon while she played. She also convinced her baby sister, Penny, to join the vegetarian movement. She often spent her allowance on comic books and considered them, along with a tomato sandwich and Pepsi, her personal heaven.
She found love one last time with Dave Hearn and enjoyed a decade of traveling together and eating more tomato sandwiches from his vegetable garden, until his passing in 2019.
She was happy to live out her days with her constant companion, her little dog, Gigi. She was able to do so with the help of her caregiver, Dezirae, and her kind neighbors, Kathy and Randy Boden. She had a standing poker game and enjoyed taking Myrna’s and Mary Lou’s money when she was on a heater.
She is already terribly missed by her friends; children; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; surviving sister, Penny; sister-in-law, Beverly; and many nieces and nephews.
Those who knew Mrs. Beaty will remember her kindness, her sense of humor and her lifelong habit of rooting for the underdog.
Condolences may be left at http://www.plummerfuneralservices.com.
