Elizabeth "Beth" McCormick

Elizabeth A. “Beth” McCormick, age 72, of Harpers Ferry passed away Sunday, December 21, 2025, peacefully at home, surrounded by her family. Beth was born March 1, 1953, in Caledonia, MN, to John and Melba (Meyer) Beneke.

Mass of Christian Burial was Saturday, December 27 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in McGregor with Father Martin Coolidge officiating and Deacon Pat Malanaphy assisting. Those wishing to honor Beth’s memory, may do so with a memorial contribution to St. Croix Hospice, The Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing or Harpers Ferry Fire & Rescue.

Beth will be laid to rest in a private family burial in the Spaulding Cemetery, a quiet cemetery on the McCormick Family Farm. A place where she will keep watch over her husband as he tends the fields, and over her children and grandchildren as they grow, play, and build their own memories on the land she loved.

Beth grew up in rural New Albin on her family farm, alongside her siblings Jane (Ken) Staggemeyer, Keith (Faye) Beneke, and Michelle (Bill) Wagner. She attended elementary school in Dorchester and graduated from Waukon High School in 1971. After graduation, Beth was accepted into St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing program in Red Wing, MN, where she graduated at the top of her class.

After graduation she began her nursing career at St. Francis in La Crosse, WI, and continued to work there until all four of her kids were born. Beth loved being a nurse, often working nights, and even after she was married and moved over an hour away, she still made the drive, confidently handling the “four-on-the-floor” in her 5.0 V8 ’84 Mercury Capri or through the snow in Tom’s brand-new ’83 Ford F-250.

Once her kids were all in school, Beth returned to nursing, eventually becoming the Infection Control Nurse at Prairie Maison until her retirement in 2013. She was a talented nurse, compassionate, and dedicated. She came from a generation that treated nursing as a calling, not a shift, and where you earned your way to a job without nights, weekends, and holidays - you definitely didn’t graduate with one.

In 1983, Beth married the love of her life, Tom McCormick. Babies came quickly, one right after another, and together they built a home filled with laughter and hard work. They started their own family farm, living and loving through those early years side by side. Whether she was supporting his mechanic work, cattle farm, or field work, she was the steady hand that made everything whole and was the confidence behind his decisions.

Together they made their home in Harpers Ferry, where they farmed and raised their four children. She truly had her work cut out for her with the four of them. The kids were almost never where they were supposed to be, and usually exactly where they weren’t supposed to be. Regardless, she never stayed mad for long, for her love for them was powerful.

Beth became a grandmother in 2015, having the privilege of claiming the title seven times to Lottie and Breckin Schmeichel, Sullivan and Wilder Geerdes, Ryker McCormick, and Shaylee and Garrett McCormick. In Beth’s world, her grandkids could do no wrong. Ice cream made a perfectly fine breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, and picking up your toys was most definitely worth twenty dollars, because, as she’d say, “you’re at Grandma’s.”

Beth will be remembered for her love of cooking and gardening, and in the later years, her kids laughed at her inability to cook and garden but her LOVE of trying. She enjoyed following NASCAR with her husband, Tom, and she loved motorcycle rides, four-wheeler rides, and Ranger rides.

Beth was fiercely and unapologetically protective of her children. She didn’t believe in traditional gender roles; she believed in capable children, and that’s how she raised us, and if anyone told us differently, she put them in their place. She had no patience for tearing anyone down or talking poorly about others, and she would shut it down and end the conversation right there.

Beth is survived by her loving husband of 42 years, Tom McCormick of Harpers Ferry; four children and their own children: Korine (Ken), Lottie and Breckin Schmeichel of Dubuque, Kendrin (Ross), Sullivan and Wilder Geerdes of Harpers Ferry, Kyle (Jennifer) and Ryker McCormick of Chatham, IL, and Kale (Kenzie), Shaylee and Garrett McCormick of Asbury.

She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Melba Beneke of New Albin; and her in-laws, Emmett and Dorothy McCormick of Harpers Ferry; and a brother-in-law, Don McCormick of Harpers Ferry.

The McCormick family also expresses its deep gratitude to every single member of St. Croix Hospice, for they helped Mom, Dad, and the children transition through the unknown with dignity and compassion.

To our dad, Tom, thank you for loving Mom so fiercely and so faithfully through the hardest years. You lived your vows in ways few ever truly do. When Mom could no longer see, you became her eyes. When she could no longer walk, you became her feet.

When she could no longer reach, you became her hands. You were her husband, her caregiver and her protector.

Through sickness and health, through exhaustion and heartache, you never wavered. You showed us what enduring love really looks like. You’d say, “it’s my job, I love her,” like the enormity of what you were doing wasn’t a big deal. Thank you, Dad, for taking such amazing care of Mom, and for loving her all the way through. “Well, ya old duffer, this was a treat, but it’s time to get going”.