Rhudenia Bealer

Mrs. Rhudenia Bealer is a 50-year Phoenix resident and devoted member of the Wesley
United Methodist Church. She has a large family that lives in the area and is still very active
in her church community.

Rhudenia Bealer was born in April of 1927 in West Plains, Missouri. At the young age of 15
she and her whole extended family headed west to Phoenix thanks to her uncle Henry Rice who
paid for everyone. When she moved, she was somewhere in the middle of her sophomore year of high school, but she did not go to school in Phoenix. She went in-person to high school back in
West Plains, but was sent forms of lessons and homework in the mail from a school district for
three years.

Rhudenia had lived her whole life back in Missouri and suddenly she is out west and having to start from scratch in Phoenix, Arizona. She was very unconditioned to the heat and was constantly be dehydrated. While doing most of her coursework in a homeschool environment, Rhudenia also worked at a laundromat for a short time. At the time, there was a new Methodist church that had opened a few years back located close to her so she and her family joined. It would become the church we all know now as Wesley United Methodist Church.

[Insert Clip: 14:33, Reason For Coming to Arizona]

At that time, Rhudenia’s family church was located on Washington Street in downtown. Years later, the church moved to South Phoenix. When a large company wanted to buy the church property in what is now downtown, the church leaders decided to move the Wesley location to 7th and Southern Avenues in South Phoenix. The land was cheap and the time was right for a major move.

[Insert Clip: 40:05, Moving the Church Location to Southern in South Phoenix]

At that time, in the 1960s and 1970s, Rhudenia remembered South Phoenix as a rural place filled with small markets. There were no grocery stores or major restaurants. A far-away K-Mart was her local “grocery store.” The church, on Southern Avenue, was surrounded by cotton fields for decades until the housing boom of the 1990s swept into South Phoenix. The growing population of the area put a high emphasis on development, and as a result, the cotton and flower fields were built over. During her time in South Phoenix, Rhudenia saw new schools, stores, and restaurants open in South Phoenix, and members of her church became leaders in the community.

[Insert Clip: 49:50, South Phoenix experience in 60s/70s]
[Insert Clip: 53:53, South Phoenix Changing]

As a member of Wesley United Methodist since she was a teen, Rhudenia played a central role in the church’s evolution over fifty years. She’s been a devoted member and brought friends, family, and colleagues to Wesley over the course of many decades.

Mrs. Rhudenia Bealer helped contribute to the Wesley United Methodist Church and
changes the community around it. Thanks to her long life filled with wonderful experiences
and memories, she has a large network of family and friends to spend the rest of her days with.

Narrator	Mrs. Rhudenia Bealer
Birthdate	April, 1927
Place of Origin	West Plains, Missouri
Place of Residence	South Phoenix, AZ
Role	Member of the Wesley United Methodist Church/Military Wife
Years active in South Phoenix	1943-
Interview Date	April 3, 2023
Location	Mrs. Rhudenia Bealer’s House
Duration	1:17:08
Interviewed by	Faculty Researcher: Summer Cherland, PhD
Story Written by	Student Researchers: Ian Armbruster and Cody Estes