Obituaries: David Becker and Alice Frost

David M. Becker, 60, a longtime pastor and denominational leader, died March 15 after a brief illness. He was a pastor 41 years, including full-time Texas pastorates at Arnett Baptist Church in Gatesville, Selden Baptist Church in Stephenville, University Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville and First Baptist Church in Granbury, as well as two interim pastorates. He also was pastor of churches in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Muskogee, Okla. Becker was a vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and served on the BGCT Executive Board, BGCT Christian Life Commission and BGCT Effectiveness and Efficiency Committee. He was a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, Melissa Roberts Becker; daughters Kristen Becker Cameron and Kelsey Becker Adams; son, Tyler Becker; grandchildren, Parker, Addison and Kennedy; father, Emil Becker; brother, Ronald Gene Becker; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his mother, Illa Faye Becker, and brother, Richard Lynn Becker.

Alice Ruth Matteson Frost, 96, in Clovis, Calif. She was born July 30, 1919, in Rawls to Nicholas and Ada Matteson. In 1937, she married James E. Frost in LeFors, and for the next 53 years, she was a minister’s wife. Her husband served as pastor of numerous churches in Oregon, Washington and Texas, and he served on staff with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, as well as Baptist state conventions in California and Florida. She attended Hardin-Simmons University and Fresno City College, and she graduated from Fresno State College in 1962 at age 42, receiving a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She was a kindergarten teacher in Clovis, Calif., and in Nashville, Tenn., where she was selected to become the teacher of the first racially integrated kindergarten class at Hattie Cotton Elementary School. After moving to Florida, she worked with Baptist churches as a frequent leader of seminars and conferences for preschool Sunday school teachers throughout the state, as well as the Baptist assemblies at Glorieta and Ridgecrest conference centers. After she took up golf in her 50s, she won several local tournaments in Atlantic Beach, Fla., and after she learned to paint in her 80s, her watercolor paintings won several awards in Ventura, Calif. She also mastered shuffleboard, winning several gold medals in the National Senior Olympics. In 2014 she was inducted into the California Shuffleboard Hall of Fame. She was preceded in death by her husband, James, in 1990. She is survived by her three sons, Dennis of Fresno, Calif., Les of Los Angles and Jim of Memphis, Tenn.; her brother, Robert Matteson of Ventra, Calif.; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.