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Obituary

Her work kept many warm and comforted

Annie Beckworth made quilts, teddy bears and dolls, all while maintaining a zest for life.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published June 23, 2006

PLANT CITY - Around Plant City tonight, senior citizens will sleep under quilts that Annie Beckworth made, and children will snuggle with her teddy bears. Meanwhile, at her home, her family members will sit, surrounded by the countless exquisite ceramic dolls that she made from scratch, and which she dressed in beautiful clothes that she designed and made herself.

Mrs. Beckworth passed away June 17 of breast cancer. She was 77 years old. She left a legacy of creativity, kindness and exuberance for life.

"She was one of those people who was never in a bad mood," said her granddaughter Paula Brickner. "She was never down in the dumps. She always had a smile on her face."

Although her real first name was Annie, everyone called her Blanche. She was born and raised in the Atlanta area, and moved to Tampa with her family when she was a teenager.

She was only 16 years old when she met her first husband, Ivan Roberts. They married a year later. Her husband later became a chiropractor in Tampa, with an office on Florida Avenue near the Hillsborough River. Mrs. Beckworth worked there for many years as his office manager.

The couple shared a passion for square dancing, and Mrs. Beckworth would create all their dancing costumes.

"She could sew like nobody else," her granddaughter said.

She and Dr. Roberts separated after 31 years of marriage, though they remained friends until his death in 1992.

She met her second husband, Ed Beckworth, at a square dance a few years after her divorce. They married a year later and remained together until he passed away in 1986. Then Mrs. Beckworth moved from Tampa to Plant City to be close to other family members.

It was then that she started to spend more time in creative pursuits she had always enjoyed, her granddaughter said. She had a workshop in her back yard, where she would fire ceramic dolls in a kiln, then paint them and create clothes for them.

She co-founded Strawberry Stitchers, a Plant City group that makes quilts to donate to nursing homes and teddy bears for local children. Often, the teddy bears were given to local police agencies, who would give them to children who were in stressful situations.

She also taught quilting at a community college and traveled to doll shows around the country, selling her own dolls and buying new ones to add to her collection.

"She was just like a little girl with her dolls," Brickner said.

Brickner, who lives in Alabama, would often come to visit her grandmother and recalls spending most of the time in the workshop.

"We'd be out in that workshop, just making things, anything, for hours and hours," Brickner said. "She always had to stay active. She wasn't the kind of person who could sit there and watch television, ever."

Outsiders never would have known she was successfully fighting breast cancer for 26 years.

"She wouldn't let the cancer beat her," Brickner said. "She'd fight it but it kept coming back. ... It came back this last time and it was just too much. But she died peacefully at home, with her family here."

Mrs. Beckworth is survived by her son Michael B. Roberts, daughter Kathryn Brown Kibler, sister Rebecca Byrum Jackson, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 12:47:09]