Graduated from West Point High School in 1891. Valedictorian of the girls' division of Cumberland College in Lebanon, Tennessee. A student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she majored in speech. She wanted to study law, but her father dissuaded her.
She taught at Baylor in Texas and in West Point before marrying Ben Howorth.
She was very active in civic and church affairs. She was the principal organizer of the New Century Club organized in 1900 and was president three years. During her first term in 1912, she was the moving force in setting up the Carnegie Library in West Point. (Her name is on the cornerstone.)
With the help of the West Point Rotary Club, she made plans for the municipal swimming pool opened in 1924.
In 1934, she was named State Chairman of International Relations for the State Federation of Women's Clubs. She was selected president of this organization in 1942.
She grew up a Baptist, like here mother, but became a Methodist like her father. As superintendant of the Primary Department of First Methodist Church in West Point, she brought modern educational methods into the Sunday School classes.
She later became the first woman to serve as General Superintendant of the Sunday School, a position she held for 11 years. She was also active in the Women's Society of Christian Service, both in her own church and in the North Mississippi Conference of the church.
Her interest and knowledge of local history are reflected in a number of articles written for the Daily Times Leader. This material is available both in bound copies of the Daily Times Leader at the Courthouse and in manuscript form at the Bryan Library.
A story about a marital near-miss: On her return trip from Europe in the summer of 1900, she met a man from New York City aboard ship. He came to West Point to visit her. Her father dissuaded her from the relationship because, he said, she would not be accepted as a Southerner in New York so soon after the Civil War.
More About Willie Capel Beckett: Date born 2: December 11, 1875, West Point, Mississippi.1 Died 2: November 29, 19691
More About Willie Capel Beckett and Benjamin Marion Howorth, Jr.: Marriage: August 07, 19011
Children of Willie Capel Beckett and Benjamin Marion Howorth, Jr. are:
+Marion Beckett Howorth, b. August 01, 1902, West Point, Mississippi1, d. July 16, 1986, Jackson, Mississippi1.
Willie Capel Beckett (b. December 11, 1875, d. November 1969)
Notes for Willie Capel Beckett: