President Janette Callister Hales Beckham, who served as the 10th Young Women general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Friday March 4, 2022, in Provo, Utah. She was 88 years old.
Funeral services will be Saturday, March 12, in Provo.
President Beckham served as Young Women general president from 1992 to 1997. President Beckham was also a member of the Utah State Legislature from 1988 to 1991, and served in several community roles.
She was born Janette Callister on June 7, 1933, in Springville, Utah, to Thomas Leonard and Hannah Carrick Callister, and was raised in Spanish Fork, Utah. While attending Brigham Young University, she met Robert H. Hales. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1955, and lived in Salt Lake City; San Antonio, Texas; New York City; and San Francisco, California while Robert Hales finished his medical training.
The Haleses had five children: Ann, Thomas, Jane, Karen and Mary. The family returned to Provo in 1963, and Sister Beckham finished school, graduating from BYU in 1969. She spent the rest of her life in Provo, where she raised her family and served in the community.
Robert Hales died of cancer in March 1988. Shortly afterward, Utah Gov. Norman H. Bangerter appointed her to fill a vacancy in the Utah House of Representatives. She was then elected to the House in November of that year, stepping down after one term in January 1991.
In March 1990, the ninth Young Women general president, President Ardeth G. Kapp, selected then-Sister Hales to be her new counselor in the Young Women general presidency, when President Elaine L. Jack was released to become Relief Society general president. After President Kapp was released in 1992, President Hales was called to be her successor.
In 1995, while serving as Young Women general president, President Hales married Raymond E. Beckham and changed her last name to Beckham. President Beckham was released as Young Women general president in 1997.
