H. Wayne Beckholt (Hugh) left this world on April 30th, 2026. As a New Years Baby in 1942, he was born at home to Deane and Ruby (Lauderbaugh) Beckholt in/around Homer, Ohio.
Devoted and loving husband to Mary Jane Beckholt (Harden) and caring father to son Dennis Allen Beckholt, Wayne grew up quickly and work hard in his youth on farms like most Midwesterners of that generation. While he did play other sports like basketball, being a fast and strong farm boy like his teammates, he played six-man football with a leather helmet as running back and defensive back. His mother demanded he graduate high school and he did from the last graduating class of Homer High School. He often joked he was 10th in the class but always followed up with “out of 10”. He was smarter than his grades reflected and actual read an entire set of encyclopedias while months in a waist high cast after breaking his leg in Buckeye Addition.
After graduation, he went right to work finding a job as an orderly in the tuberculous ward of what is now Mount Vernon Development Center. Hardened nurses found he had the perfect training from the farm to provide care for children and adults with extreme challenges. Changing diapers and giving enemas to a ward of bedridden children and adults, he cared for those who could not for themselves in place where some were forgotten.
He decided to be a police officer in Mt Vernon from 1962 to 1973. Checking the business doors and of course the cliché bakery for a donut. He walked the beat at night when cops had a callbox instead of radio and created life-long friendships for the family. After a three-month courtship, he married Mary Jane in front of family and friends. They started married life in Mt Vernon working nights from an apartment on Gay Street, her walking to the hospital working as a nurse’s aide and him walking the police station (Much the cliché). He quickly realized starting a family on a policeman’s salary was less than optimal. He got a job with Pittsburg Plate & Glass making more than the Chief of Police at that time. A tough job for tough men where he shared the work with relatives to make the hot workday enjoyable.
Having picked up skills building homes with a local builder, Wayne built a house on Weaver Rd with the help of family and friends for Mary Jane. They started a family with the birth of Dennis, something Mary Jane wanted badly but made him nervous. When PPG moved to Texas, he went down to the location, secured a house, and came back to retrieve the family saying, “I bought a house, so we need to pack!”
Family and friends helped gather up things and wished them well. Already an outdoorsman, he explored what Texas had to offering for fishing and hunting. Taking Dennis on his first boat ride and showing him how to fish. While it was fun, they missed the family in Ohio. They said goodbyes and headed back to Knox County, finding their forever home in Fredericktown on a quiet street to enjoy neighbors, both young and old. He fixed the occasional neighbor’s shed or garbage disposal, always ready to provide bolts, nuts, nails, or screws to anyone who needed one out a collection that is still in the basement.
Having so many different skills, he worked several jobs to keep the family secure. After being swept down a culvert working construction, he said enough and switched to a factory job. By chance, his resume was picked up by Cooper Rolls Royce in Mt Vernon. He worked many jobs in the warehouse, from building shipping boxes to inventory reconciliation with a computer, so very foreign but he picked that up too. He was often the strong guy to pick something up or grip something, and ran foot races wearing steel toes shoes. He was finally beaten by a man about half his age in tennis shoes. He retired from racing, relinquishing his title as fastest man on the shift.
He took raising a family seriously and worked weekends to keep the house, including at the Mohican Youth Detention Center where he was appreciated by many, making lifelong friends. After retirement from Coopers in the early 2000s, it was always Wayne and Mary Jane, always together at either garage sales or the thrift stores. Always on a drive either for their fall anniversary drive admiring the color change, looking for deer, or visiting friends and family. He was her rock and she was his.
He enjoyed hunting from his youth and sold a “few” guns here and there. Do not be surprised that his birthday 1/1/42 is stamped under the butt plate of your grandfathers over and under. He spent many nights on the Muskingum River fishing for big catfish, sleeping under the stars with Dennis. It was their time to be together, away from everything. On foggy mornings, they inched their way down the river back to launch and maybe got turned around a couple times. He loved to fish and tell stories.
Sadly, there comes a time when you cannot fish or hunt anymore (His words). He sold the boat and instead spent more time at the local auction house. Appraising guns and other things, providing opinions freely whether you were ready for them or not. He collected the money and showed you the dolly. He earned the “I don’t help load things” response he gave people. He kept his eyes open for “good stuff”, as Mary Jane would say, and brought them home. It made him happy, Mary Jane smile, and Dennis cringe thinking what he might have to go through someday.
The last year or so was filled with naps followed by another nap. Hard work took a toll on his body. He faced his last moments the way we hope we will, the way we hope our loved ones face it, with amazing dignity, fearing nothing, and on his own terms.
He is survived and will be missed by his wife Mary Jane and son Dennis. He will also be missed by nephews, nieces, cousins, and many friends. Once you were in the family, you were always part of the family. He was preceded in death by his mother, father, bother’s Harry and Daryl (Jack), sisters Jean Robbins and Suzie Lahmon, and Jack’s beloved wife Annie, whom Wayne loved so much. Many family and friends passed before him but shaped him into the man we loved, he missed them all up to the end.
In lieu of flowers or donations, the family encourages you to buy a fishing rod for a boy/girl who needs one. It is a gift that provides joy and memories for a lifetime. There will be a celebration of life scheduled for a later date.
The Snyder Funeral Homes of Mount Vernon are honored to serve the family of H. Wayne Beckholt (Hugh).
Funeral Home: Snyder
Website: www.snyderfuneralhomes.com