Obituary of Dr. Margaret M. Beke

Dr. Margaret M. Beke of North Plainfield died Saturday, March 30, 2013. Born Margareta Maria-Anna Rheinweiler on June 11, 1922, in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Swabia, Germany, she was the second of six children of Moritz and Maria (Huber) Rheinweiler. Dr. Beke's medical studies at the University of Heidelberg were interrupted by World War II, when she worked with the German Red Cross and made house calls on a motorcycle. She graduated with a medical degree from University of Frankfurt in 1952. In 1953, Dr. Beke immigrated to the United States from her home in Kirchheim unter Teck, with the assistance of Fr. Louis Hamm, MD, a Franciscan priest and missionary to China who helped her get a position at St. Francis Medical Center in Jersey City. She completed her residency at St. Francis, where she met and in 1957 married f.ellow surgical resident Andrew Zoltan Beke, who had emigrated from Budapest, Hungary. Dr. Beke worked as a pediatrician at Jersey City Medical Center until after the birth of their five children. She later worked at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Lyons, retiring in 1987. She received the Humanitarian Award from the Veterans Alliance of Raritan Valley in 1984. After retiring, Margaret continued to serve as Eucharistic Minister for our veterans at VAMC Lyons as well as at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, North Plainfield. She volunteered with husband Andrew as school physicians for St. Joseph's School in North Plainfield. Margaret acquired her love of nature from her father, who took all the children on hikes in the German Alps, and made sure they knew the names of all the plants, flowers and birds in German and Latin. She loved flowers, especially roses, and always had blooms from her garden on the kitchen table. She loved summers at the cottage she and Andrew built on a lake in Ontario, Canada, near her husband's brother and his family. Her favorite sport was swimming and she would swim in the lake every day, no matter the temperature, or take a canoe ride or paddle around the lake in the kayak she received for her 70th birthday. Dr. Beke was very artistic. Her hobbies included drawing, painting, and making stained glass lamps and suncatchers. She taught her children to paint the hand-blown egg shells for Easter and to make gold paper stars for the Christmas tree. She sewed all her own curtains and drapes, tablecloths and slipcovers, and made Easter clothes for her children; and knitted sweaters and caps for all the grandchildren. She prepared fruit jams from her garden every summer. She taught her children and grandchildren traditional German baking and cooking. Dr. Beke had a deep love of family and she never got over her homesickness for her parents' home, especially during the holidays. All the children spoke German and she sent them for summer vacations to her parents and siblings in Europe to learn a love of family heritage and travel. She looked forward to weekly phone calls with her sisters in Germany. Her competitive spirit came out in games of rummy and farkle with her children and grandchildren. She always had a smile for anyone she spoke with, and always said thank you. Dr. Beke is survived by her daughter Dorothy Beke, RN, MS, CPNP, of Dedham, Mass.; son Thomas and his wife, Lubka, and their children Victoria and Alexander, of Mountainside; son Michael and his wife, Cathleen, and their children Emily, Christopher, and Matthew, of Cedar Rapids, Ia.; son Peter, his wife Mary and their daughter Maria Margaret, of Cherry Valley, Il.; and daughter Monica Wozniak and her husband, Ronald, of Hillsborough. She is also survived by her sisters Birgitt Oettinger, Doris Rheinweiler, and Mechtild Rheinweiler; and her brother Rudolf Rheinweiler, all of Germany. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Andrew Beke in 2008, and her brother, Fr. Meinrad Rheinweiler of Germany. Calling hours will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Higgins Home for Funerals, 752 Mountain Blvd., Watchung. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Church, N. Plainfield (GPS: 46 Jackson Ave, North Plainfield, NJ). Donations in her memory may be made to the Ugandan medical clinic started by Fr. Joseph Kabali, Cafrico Inc., PO Box 1011, Flemington, NJ 08822,; or St. Joseph RC Church, 99 Westervelt Ave., North Plainfield, NJ; or Consolata Missionaries, 2301 State Highway 27, PO Box 5550, Somerset, NJ 08875.