By Brittney Mangum
bmangum@clarkecountytrib.com
“Always put God first, and everything will fall into place,” advised Tracy Beckman.
Tracy Beckman possesses a strong faith and does her best each day to put God first in everything she does. She developed her faith at a young at thanks to her strong family upbringing, and she can easily see the impact her childhood had on making her who she is today.
“I lived with my grandmother most of my life,” Tracy reminisced. “She was strict because she was old school. She made sure we were in church every Sunday. She was very strict on that. When we would get up, we didn’t ask if we were going to church that day; we knew it was Sunday and that’s what we did. I just grew up in church, and I tried to teach Josh that. I never gave him an option. We would get up and go to church on Sunday because that’s all I ever knew.”
For the most part, she stayed with her grandmother until she decided to get married and start a family of her own. With all the ups and downs over the years, she still gives credit to God for everything he’s brought her through.
“I did move out for a few years, but then I moved back in and stayed there,” recalled Tracy. “I lived there until I got married. Of course, I was married for 27 years. In my 27 years, we went through a lot, but we always seemed to manage. Now that I look back, I know that God brought me through so much.”
A few years ago, she endured a bad injury, but she feels so blessed for being able to survive and make it through the experience.
“I had a wreck in 2019 at the store, and it broke the lower part of my back and then I had a fracture in the upper part. The Nabisco truck hit me right in front of the credit union. I was on my way to the store, and he was on his way to the store, too. I was sitting still in the road, and he came up on me and hit me, and he knocked me way into the fence at Barry’s Produce. It totaled my truck and was pretty bad, but I made it. After the wreck, I knew everything. I was trying to get out of the vehicle. They told me when I got to the university that if I had stood up that I would probably never walk again, so it was good that I waited for the ambulance to come,” declared Tracy. “I was out of work for nine weeks. I was in a body brace for nine weeks. They had told me 12, but I told them I didn’t think I was going to be in it for 12 weeks because God was gonna heal me. I was not dealing with it well. When I went back for my checkup after nine weeks, he told me I could come out of the brace. I’ve been fine from that. I have a little pain every now and then, but pretty much I’ve done well after that. I had to depend on someone to take care of me, which was extremely hard because I’m very independent. I don’t want anybody doing for me, and to have someone completely take care of me for those nine weeks was the hardest part.”
While she is well-known for her position at Southern Market, Tracy has held different jobs over the years, including working in the school system for a little while.
“Several years ago, I worked at the school as an assistant teacher. We just started at first grade when I worked there the first time years ago. There was no public kindergarten. I worked in second grade for a couple years, and then they started the kindergarten program and built the two story building. I started with a kindergarten teacher, and kindergarten was probably my favorite time. I worked for about five years, and then I had another job,” remembered Tracy. “Then I went and worked there again after Alton and I got married for five more years. I loved kindergarten and was always told that it was their first impression and whatever we did was the first impression the kids would have about school and what they see there is going to go with them for the rest of their years.”
She may have only spent 10 years total working as an assistant, but she was still able to make a positive impact on the kids she worked with. Over the years, she has loved watching as the kids she saw in kindergarten grew and made a successful life for themselves.
“During that time, there was a kid I had in my classroom, and he would be a little out of control. He and the teacher didn’t always click, but he did with me,” explained Tracy. “He was the sweetest child and would do whatever I asked him to do, and we got along so well. His mom and dad had told me that ever since his kindergarten year he’s always talked about me and how good I was to help during kindergarten. I communicate with his parents, and he’s been living in Nashville. The other day, I was sitting in the office at work, and there was this guy at the register. He was that little boy, so I came out of the office, and we hugged. He has a good job and is living in Nashville now. He’s done extremely good, and it just kind of made me feel good that maybe I had a little part in that.”
She took a break from working when she had her baby, but once Josh started school, she started working again. It eventually led her to the position she has today at Southern Market.
“When he went to school, I went back to work. That’s when I went to the credit union as a teller,” informed Tracy. “Then I worked into the branch manager down there, but banking wasn’t really my thing. That’s when I went to work part time over at Southern Market. I worked part time for probably about seven or eight months. When I would get off from the credit union, I would go there and then would also work some weekends. Then, I went to work full time at Southern Market. I’m the office manager there now. I started out just helping as a scan coordinator, but the office manager had a baby and went home for a while and I moved into the office manager job. I’ve been doing that for several years.”
Outside her job, she is passionate about her family. Her family has recently grown through marriage, and she is extremely proud of her son and tries to support him as much as she can.
“I have Josh who I’m extremely proud of. He’s always been a good kid,” proclaimed Tracy. “He just got married this past weekend, so now I have a daughter-in-law. She’s just like a daughter because I love her like that. He pastors at Riverside in Enterprise, so I kind of split my time because I’m a member of Mont Rose and am involved a lot there. I’m the treasurer and on a lot of committees, but I try to split my time and at least go to his church once a month.”
Tracy is very humble and loves to see others be successful. No matter what happens each day, she will continue to have faith in God and try to be an encouragement to those around her.
If you would like to nominate someone for Person of the Week, contact Brittney Mangum at 601-776-3726.
