Holmes County Herald

Former Lexingtonian
La. Woman Of Year

The 13th Annual Louisiana
Federated Garden Club met in
New Orleans last week, and
members of the Eighth Dis-
trict brought home their share
of the honors.

An outstanding honor included the purple ribbon for
the Alexandria Garden Club
for the most outstanding
Flower Show last November.

One of the club members,
Mrs. Edwin B. Beckman, was
named Garden Club Woman
of the Year for the state of
Louisiana.
She was nomi-
nated by the Magnolia Garden
Club of Alexandria of which
she is an honorary member.
She has presented for the past
five years a monthly tele-
vision and radio program at
both state and local levels.
This program presents
the merits of gardening, flower
arranging and home beautifi-
cation. She also teaches horti-
culture and gives lectures and
demonstrations to clubs and
groups on flower arranging
and corsage making. Mrs.
Beckman teaches garden ther-
apy and holds workshops for
the handicapped in the local
hospitals. She also writes a
newspaper column.

The mayor of her city, tele-
vision and radio stations all
have paid tribute to her for
her leadership,
cooperation
and civic endeavors. As a re-
sult, she was installed as di-
rector of the Eighth District
at the 27th Annual Convention
held in conjunction with the
flower show.

Mrs. Beckman is better
known locally as the former
Donnis Norquist. She was
reared in Lexington, and she
graduated from Ole Miss
where she was cheerleader for
three years. Her mother is
Mrs. Eric Norquist of Lexing-
ton. Mrs. Norquist is also a
gardening expert, having
served as president of the
Lexington Garden Club for the
past two years.