Obituary of Helen Wiggan Beckett

Obituary of Helen Beckett Helen Wiggan Beckett was born November 11, 1922, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Beresford Orsley Wiggan and Myrtle Chessé Wiggan. She grew up attending church school in New Orleans and attended Dillard University her first year of college, however her mother decided she should attend Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Huntsville, Alabama, where she graduated, in 1945, with a degree in Business Administration. She was one of many “firsts” in the 1940’s. Mrs. Beckett was the first Editorial Secretary of The Message Magazine at the Southern Publishing Assoc.; Nashville, Tennessee She was the First Secretary to the President of the Southwest Region Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the reason she moved to Dallas in 1946, and the first female elected to office in the Southwest Region Conference as Sabbath School Secretary, where she served twice on the Executive Committee. She was the first Black woman in Federal Civil Service in Dallas County, in 1946, where she went from Secretary to the Intergroup Relations Adviser of FHA (Federal Housing Administration), to Equal Opportunity Specialist, investigating Fair Housing discrimination and Federal Contract Compliance, with HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development). She worked with HUD 31 years before she retired. After retiring from HUD, she worked alongside her husband at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 16 years. During these years she remained active in the City Temple SDA Church. She worked in just about every department in the church, but her first love was the Music Department where she was the church organist for 51 years. Mrs. Beckett was a lifetime member of NAACP Legal Defense Fund and championed the Civil Rights Movements, working closely with Thurgood Marshall and many other distinguished leaders. She was a Charter Member of Jack & Jill of America and Jack & Jill Foundation Steering Committee. She was also a member of the Priscilla Art Club for more than 50 years. Mrs. Becket was recently honored with a street named for her at the Southwest Region Campground in Athens, Texas. She married Tim Beckett in 1947, one of the first African-American Administrators in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), who preceded her in death, and to whom she was married for 64 years. To this union was born a daughter, Myrna Beckett-Burnside, and a devoted son, W. Timothy (Michiko) Beckett, II, DDS. She was the proud grandmother of three grandsons, Timothy DeShun (Madelaine) Beckett, MD, Cedric Arthur Burnside, and Emmanuel Hadley Beckett; and three great-granddaughters, Caley Burnside, Anisa and Amira Beckett. Affectionately known as “Mama Beckett,” she taught us the miracle of the lighted candle – to keep your candle lighted, and to share your light with others, the more you share your light, the brighter your light grows.