Palma Jean Clark Fessenden Beckett was born on March 20, 1936, in Ringgold, LA and died Jan. 5, in Maggie Valley, NC. She was the daughter of Al and Marguerite Cook Clark of Ringgold. Palma was really bright and talented and had a wicked sense of humor. She was gifted with perfect pitch and a photographic memory and was a music major at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA where she sang in the a cappella choir. When Palma left Northwestern, she moved to the big city of Ft. Worth. Her work life was primarily in technical industries, including American Cyanamide and Lockheed Martin. While at Lockheed, she was the administrative assistant to the VP. In this position, she quickly learned new computer programs and she was asked to teach the new programs to others, which were used to create technical presentations for international participants. When Palma decided she wanted to master new things it happened, because she willed it to be so.

After retirement, she moved to Alpine, where she loved playing in a ladies’ golf league and it seemed that once she had achieved her hole in one … she then moved on to learning all about fiber from the gathering, cleaning, preparation to spinning, dyeing, and weaving. She loved sharing with others the “how to’s” and the easier ways to do any task. Palma truly enjoyed her time with her dear friend, Linda Bryant, as they partnered in buying and the entire process of picking, washing, and readying the alpaca to be spun into fiber for their projects. Palma was a member of the Catchlight Gallery where she enjoyed making, selling, and demonstrating weaving or spinning to anyone who might be interested. Palma participated in Yarn Arts at the Alpine Library, where she really enjoyed her fiber arts friends. She thrived being in the company of art and artists and living in Alpine. She was no fan of “pushing dirt” and was usually reading or doing some type of handwork, but rarely were her hands idle nor empty.

Palma leaves behind her sons, Lee Roy Fessenden of North Texas and Bruce Alan Fessenden of Alpine. A sister, Mary Cup Harrison and husband Harry of Waynesville, NC. She also leaves behind a niece and nephew, Gina Hoenke-Wilcox and husband, Dan and Clark Hoenke and wife Saheba. The family wants to recognize her loving NC caregivers: Renee, Melody, and Laurie. Palma had a stroke in 2019 and it was followed by dementia, but she agreed to leave her beloved Alpine and moved to North Carolina in April 2020. Even as the disease progressed, she would answer the question of ‘how are you doing today’ with “present and accounted for”. She focused on taking care of “her” people, whether that meant driving them to doctors or hospitals in El Paso or Midland-Odessa or taking care of her elderly parents. She was indeed present and accounted for and will be sorely missed.

There will be a Celebration of Palma’s life in Alpine in the spring. If you would like to donate in her memory, please consider The Alzheimer’s Assn. or Hospice.