Louise Kathleen Floyd

Louise Kathleen Beck was the daughter of Victor Beck (Bjorkbacka) and Hilma Kangas Beck (Bjorkbacka), immigrants from Finland. She was the youngest child of the family and barely knew her mother and father due to their untimely deaths. By the time she was five, Kathleen found herself an orphan. Her oldest sister Hannah who was married to Ernest Lehto gained custody of her and raised her as their first child. She was loved and cared for in their home.

Kathleen attended schools in Horry County and Marion County, South Carolina. She graduated from Mullins High School and started studying nursing at Roper Hospital in Charleston; however, she did not feel that nursing was her calling. She returned to Mullins to work with the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) stores where she had held positions through middle and high school working to a supervisory cashier position. She used to laugh about training the store manager how to work a cash register!

It was at the A&P that she met the love of her life, Harold Douglas Floyd and they married on March 28, 1956. She became a farmwife. Quickly, she learned how to cook and manage the farm chores including driving tractors and canning fruits and vegetables. She sewed and cooked and laughed with her daughters Susanne and Dee Dee.

Kathleen was very much a Finn though she had never been to Finland. She was proud of her Finnish heritage and sense of independence. She had sisu. She was headstrong and yet, she cared for others. Throughout her life, she had a strong sense of taking care of someone else. Even late in her life, she looked out for others and called the nurses. Kathleen also did not judge. If someone had a need in the community who might be shunned for some reason, Kathleen would go. She demonstrated compassion in all that she did.

After Harold was diagnosed with cancer in 1987 and passed away in 1989, Kathleen continued to live on the farm for a number of years. Her brother William Beck came to live with her after his wife died for several years until he passed away in 1997. Later, Kathleen came to live in Union County, SC near daughter Susanne. She moved from a senior apartment to assisted living to a nursing care facility over the past 15 years. She was happy to have found relatives in the Geni World Tree. She had pictures of her grandparents and that is something she had no idea of ever having in her lifetime. She passed from this life on October 10, 2021.

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https://www.mearesfh.com/obituary/kathleen-floyd

KATHLEEN'S OBITUARY Louise Kathleen Beck Floyd, 94, passed away peacefully in her sleep at Heartland Health Care Center on October 10, 2021. Born in Marlboro County on January 5, 1927, she was the daughter of the late Victor Bjorkbacka and the late Hilma Kangas Bjorkbacka of Evijarvi, Finland.

Although born in Marlboro County, Kathleen was raised in Horry and Marion Counties. She will be remembered as a loving wife, mother, and community member. Following her move to Union to be closer to her daughter, she worked with handicapped children in the school district. In her earlier years, she along with her husband, Harold, farmed in the Mt. Olive Community of Nichols. They were longtime members of Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

In addition to her parents, Kathleen was predeceased by her husband, Harold Douglas Floyd; her sisters, Hannah Beck Lehto and her husband, Ernest, who raised Kathleen as their daughter; Bertha Beck Gibson and her husband, Noah; Helen Elizabeth Beck and Martha Ellen Beck; brothers, Walter Beck and his wife, Maxine; William R. Beck and his wife, Edna; and Walford Beck.

The family will receive friends from 1:00 until 2:00 p.m., Saturday, October 16, 2021 at Meares Funeral Home in Mullins. A graveside service will follow the visitation at 2:30 p.m., on Saturday at Blanton Cemetery on Highway 19 in Nichols. We respectfully request that you respect social distancing while in the presence of others.

If you would like to remember Kathleen, the family suggests that memorial donations be made in her memory to Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 1950 Mt. Olive Church Road, Nichols, South Carolina 29581 or to Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, 373 Wesley Chapel Road, Union, South Carolina 29379.

The family would like to thank the staff and caretakers of Heartland Healthcare Center of Union for the loving care shown to Kathleen throughout her years of residency there.

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"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPCK-RCS : accessed 17 October 2021), Cathlene Beck in household of Hilma Beck, Floyds, Horry, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 15, sheet 22B, line 88, family 432, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2201; FHL microfilm 2,341,935.

• Hilma Beck Mother F 39 Finland
• Event Type Census
• Name Hilma Beck
• Sex Female Age 39
• Event Date 1930
• Event Place Floyds, Horry, South Carolina, United States
• Birth Year (Estimated) 1891 Birthplace Finland
• Marital Status Widowed
• Race White
• Relationship to Head of Household Head
• Father's Birthplace Finland Mother's Birthplace Finland
• Sheet Letter B Sheet Number 22
• Hannah Beck Sister F 17 Finland
• Bertha Beck Sister F 14 Finland
• Walter Beck Brother M 12 Pennsylvania
• Billy Beck Brother M 10 New Jersey

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4DY-WQ9 : 11 January 2021), Kathleen Beck in household of Ernest V Lehts, Reeves Township, Marion, South Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 34-19, sheet 25B, line 77, family 424, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3825.

"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVGF-CCXH : 17 July 2020), Kathleen Beck Floyd, ; Burial, , ; citing record ID , Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.