Lillian Catherine Beck Wood-Praeger

1913 - 2006

Lillian Wood-Praeger was born in Meriden, Connecticut, the daughter of Wilhelm C. and Dorthea Hornberger Beck. She was an accomplished pianist and organist and graduated from South Lancaster Academy in 1930 and from nearby Atlantic Union College in 1933. She married Leland Earl Wood in 1934, and they had three sons.

The Woods were living in Orlando, Florida, when Leland died in 1953 at the age of 47. She would spent most of her life in Florida, where she taught piano and was involved in the music programs at the Orlando SDA Church School and Forest Lake Academy. She was organist at the Kress Memorial Church in Orlando for many years and in her later years was organist in the Adventist church in Livingston, New York. While living in Orlando, she was responsible for founding the Florida Hospital Women's Auxiliary and heading the group, which became known as the "Pink Ladies."

She married Carl Praeger in the 1970s; they were living in Livingston, New York, when he died in 1988, at age 93. She was 93 at the time of her death in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.

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Sources: Obituaries, Atlantic Union Gleaner, 2 March 1989, and June 2006; two other obituaries of unknown origin, one titled “Remembering Lillian” and the other likely published in a 2006 issue of Accent on AUC magazine; Smith/Barnes Family Tree, Ancestory.com.; personal knowledge.