Beulah Maye Mcguire Mayfield

MAYFIELD, BEULAH Beulah Maye McGuire Mayfield, age 93, a leader in the deaf community died Wednesday, January 8, 2003. Services will be held at 9:30am Saturday, January 11 at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Chapel, 6101 Bosque Blvd. with Chaplain Curtis Holland officiating. Burial will follow at Waco Memorial North. Visitation with the family will be from 5:30-7pm Friday, January 10 at the funeral home. Mrs. Mayfield was born in Princeton, Missouri to Anna and Joseph McGuire on October 10, 1909. She attended and graduated from St. Louis Central Institute for the Deaf elementary school, where she learned to read lips and verbally speak so well that people often thought she was a hearing person with an accent, even though she was totally deaf from early childhood. Later, she attended and graduated from Bedford public High School, Bedford, Iowa. She was the first and only deaf student to attend her high school. She was an outstanding athlete, excelling in state track and field events. Mrs. Mayfield married Daniel Ernest Mayfield in 1932 and moved to Waco. He predeceased her in 1960. She served as President of the Waco Silent Club for two terms. In her later years, she was appointed by the Governor of Texas to be a liaison to the elderly deaf in Central Texas. She was a perfectionist in needlepoint and oil painting. She took up, and excelled in competitive golf and bowling after age 50. She was a founding member and served as an officer of Central Texas Council for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired for many years. She maintained her membership on the council until her death. She was a Sunday School teacher to deaf adults at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church and later was a primary teacher to hearing children at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her family was always the center of her life; she was devoted to her children and grandchildren. Survivors include daughter, Jeannette Kelley and husband, John of Temple; sons, Dan E. Mayfield, Jr. and wife, Beverly, James E. Mayfield, and Alan Mayfield and wife, Robin all of Waco; 16 grandchildren; 26 great grandchildren; and two great great grandchildren. Pallbearers will be her grandsons and great grandsons. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to charity of choice. Memorial guestbook at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com WILKIRSON-HATCH-BAILEY