Gene Beck Obituary - Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Beck was born in Madera, California, in 1940 and married Johnnie "Sue" Jackson there in 1959. The couple moved to Texas in May of 1960, and Beck built his career in the cotton industry that defines much of the South Plains economy. He started at Littlefield Farmers Cooperative Gin and Elevator in 1966.

Beck spent more than thirty years working in the cooperative gin industry before retiring from New Home Cooperative Gin in 2003. Along the way, he took on leadership roles among cotton ginners across the region. He became a familiar face to farmers and gin operators throughout the area.

For families across Lubbock and Floydada who built their livelihoods around cotton, Beck's name carries weight tied to a specific era of West Texas agriculture. His decades of service reflect a working life spent almost entirely inside one industry, at a time when cooperative gins anchored small towns across the region.

Beck lived nearly his whole adult life in Texas after leaving California as a young man, spending almost twice as many years running gins as he did anywhere else.