Eunice McBee

Eunice Kathlyn (Anderson) McBee, age 93, of Perham, MN, passed away Thursday, March 26, 2009, at the Perham Memorial Nursing Home.

Eunice was the 6th child born to Andrew and Christine (Halvorson) Anderson on October 21, 1915 , in Isanti County . She attended school in Oxlip and Cambridge , MN . She worked with pa and her brothers and sisters on the farm and then went to Minneapolis to work as a domestic.



Eunice married Roy Cleve on April 28, 1936 . To this union were born two daughters, Sharon and Sandra.



Eunice worked at various jobs and during World War II, went to work in the defense plant. Later, as a single mom, she worked at various jobs to support her girls. On April 26, 1950 , Eunice married Howard McBee.



She had always really wanted to be a nurse and so in her later years of working, she held various positions in the hospital and nursing homes.



After Howard retired, they moved to northern Minnesota near Big Fork where they built their home “in the woods.” She loved it. Now her interests expanded to snowmobiling, knitting, crocheting, crafts, ceramics, county clerking, and hosting cookouts at their home. She made great pickled fish too!



A few years after Howard’s death, in April 1989, Eunice made the decision to move closer to her family. It was a good decision – as a year later, health issues came up necessitating dialysis three days a week. Eunice would say, “I’m going to work.” She was feisty and made the best of her situation for 12 years keeping up with her hobby of crocheting on hand towels and making dishcloths and afghans. She was also a willing accomplice in the friendly rivalry between her two sons-in-law. Further health problems ended her apartment living and she entered the Perham Nursing Home in 2006.



Eunice is survived by her two daughters, Sharon (Phillip) Toedter, Perham, MN; and Sandra (Willard) Sanders, Ottertail, MN; fourteen grandchildren; forty-three great grandchildren; and one great great grandchild; a sister, Vivian House, Princeton, MN; and many nieces and nephews.



Preceding Eunice in death are her parents; husbands, Roy Cleve and Howard McBee; five brothers; and three sisters.