Louise "Sue" Beer with 2-year-old son Paul and infant daughter Suzan in the Fall of 1933

Louise “Sue” Paul Beer (Mrs. Frank W. Beer, Esq.)   Louise Paul was born in her mother’s family home in Quitman, Georgia, close to the Florida border.  She grew up with five siblings in the Florida everglades.  Her father helped build the turpentine railroad across the northern part of Florida, and the family moved frequently, living temporarily in the stops of the railroad along the way.  A school teacher lived with the family to educate the six children.  In her teenage years, Miss Paul was nicknamed “Sue” by a boyfriend of her older sister Grace because she was too active and tomboyish to be called Louise.  Miss Paul graduated from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University) in Tallahassee.  After graduation, she opened a tea shop with a friend in Tallahassee and worked as a secretary for a businessman.  Through her employer, she met Frank W. Beer who had just opened a law office with his friend Frank Law.  They were nearly engaged when Miss Paul’s brother Buddy moved to Phoenix to work for the Diamond Match Company.  The Depression hit Florida very hard, and Buddy encouraged Miss Paul to move to Phoenix where the economy was not as bad.  She traveled to Phoenix on the train by herself to visit her brother but ended up staying.  She and Buddy lived in a house near the State Capitol, and she worked as a stenographer in the law firm of Fennemore Craig in Phoenix.  (Mr. Fennemore frequently insisted that they send him “that Southern girl with the nice accent” to handle his correspondence.)  Miss Paul wrote to Mr. Beer telling him how much she liked Phoenix.  Within a short time, Mr. Beer and a friend drove across the country looking at towns along the way, but Mr. Beer liked Phoenix and decided to stay.  His friend returned to Florida.  Mr. Beer was admitted to practice law in Arizona in 1928.  Miss Paul and Mr. Beer were married in May 1929.

 

Mr. Beer was an early legal and aviation pioneer, and was a partner of Arthur E. Price in the law firm of Price & Beer in Chandler.  (Arthur Price served as Justice of Peace in Chandler in 1916; in 1920 he drafted the town charter for Chandler’s incorporation and was appointed as the first town attorney.)  Mr. Beer is known for having tried the first reported court case on crop dusting damage in the United States in 1933.  In December 1933, the firm dissolved, and Arthur Price pursued other interests.  The Beer family moved to West Vernon in Phoenix, and Mr. Beer’s new law office was located in the Luhrs Tower in downtown Phoenix.

 

Mr. Beer also served as an Arizona State Representative during the Depression.  State Representative Jessie Bevan from Cochise County introduced a resolution to abolish the biennial legislative ball and donate the $500 budgeted for the ball to unemployed workers.  She defended her resolution, pointing out that “There are so many people out of work and so many purposes to which this money we propose to spend could be put, it doesn’t seem right for us to have this legislative ball; it doesn’t seem right for us to dance while people are hungry.”  Representative Beer echoed her comments and declared:  “It would be a slap in the face for hungry people if we turn down this resolution to trip the light fantastic; this is the most unselfish gesture this house could make.”  The resolution failed on a 35-22 roll call vote, but tickets to the event were sold for the first time, and the proceeds were donated to unemployed workers.  As a junior member of the Legislature, Representative Beer introduced Arizona’s first legislation regulating the sale of alcohol; the task was assigned to him because of his last name.

 

Mr. Beer also served as an assistant attorney general, and was in private practice both before and after his public service.  In 1956, Mr. Beer founded the firm of Beer & Seaman, which later was called Beer & Kalyna, and is now known as Beer & Toone, P.C.  He had a passion for flying and served as Commander of the Civil Air Patrol for Arizona during World War II.

 

By the 1940’s, Mrs. Beer’s mother, father, two brothers and three sisters, as well as Mr. Beer’s mother and father, had all moved to Phoenix.  Mrs. Beer’s brother, Jim Paul, is 95 and lives in Scottsdale.  He was a developer of Scottsdale and Tempe homes, Mountain Shadows Resort (1960s) in Paradise Valley, and the Rawhide Western Town (1970s) in northern Scottsdale, which recently was moved to the Gila River Indian community near the Wild Horse Pass Resort.

 

Mr. Beer’s love of aviation was passed to his son, Paul Beer, who was born in 1931, served as First Lieutenant in the U.S. Air force, and was admitted to practice law in Arizona and joined his father’s firm in 1958.  He now is retired.  Their daughter, Suzan Beer O’Neill, attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs and is a woodworker and artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico.