Happy melodies were a great ally in Jan Beeman’s kindergarten classroom.

The longtime Bessie Ellison Elementary School teacher relied on the power of music to help her get through to students struggling with a lesson. It was but one of many talents the St. Joseph woman shared prior to her recent death from breast cancer.

Mrs. Beeman was a kindergarten teacher at Bessie Ellison for 30 of her 35 years in the St. Joseph School District, continuing in the profession until retirement in June 2007.

“It was her favorite age group,” said a daughter, Annie Yoder, about kindergarten, and which her widowed husband, Craig, called “the love of her life.”

“She liked the curiosity the kids had” and creating their smiles, Annie added. Raising a family became a simultaneous specialty, along with teaching.

“She was an expert at multitasking,” Annie said. “She always wanted to be a teacher. She just knew.”

Her life was built around definite priorities, according to family and friends.

“I would say it was school, church and family,” Annie said. “That was definitely the big three for her.”

Colleagues remember the delight she took even in such tasks as preparing her classroom each August for the new school year.

“She used music a lot in teaching” if a student had a problem grasping an assignment, said fellow Bessie Ellison kindergarten teacher Judy Halferty. “She could even have the kids sing the alphabet backwards.”

Another fellow teacher, Janet Yuratovich, said it sometimes didn’t matter that the most difficult of students became the dearest to her heart.

“She always believed in a child’s potential and never gave up when the going got tough,” she said. “Jan always played the song ‘Happy Trails’ on the last day of school each year to her students and fittingly, her funeral ended with that song one last time,” Ms. Yuratovich added.

Church activities represented another major devotion of her life, said Ellen Lane, wife of the Rev. Allan Lane, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church.

“She had a heart for missions, helping women’s missions especially,” Mrs. Lane said. Belarus and Mexico were among the stopovers.

Singing in the church choir, performing cantatas, helping form the “Joy Belles” trio and writing personal prayers complemented her strong faith.

Cowboy books and movies were also preferred pastimes, Ms. Halferty said. She also enjoyed participating in a teachers’ volleyball league and volunteering after retirement.

“Jan would take leftovers to school,” Mr. Beeman said.

Despite her illness, Mrs. Beeman achieved a goal of seeing her son Josh return home from military service in South Korea — along with a grandchild she had never seen before, Ms. Halferty said.

“She never wanted to let it slow her down,” Annie said.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation was chosen by the family for memorials as a way of preserving Mrs. Beeman’s legacy, she added.

Ray Scherer can be reached at rscherer@npgco.com.