New Year’s crash devastates Burleson family, with 1 daughter killed, another in coma
The adopted siblings have a longstanding holiday tradition with their parents: Each December they bring out their own fake Christmas tree, called a memory tree. Instead of ornaments, branches are draped in mementos like pacifiers, baby shoes and old yearbook clippings.
This winter, the Burleson family spent Christmas together with their usual traditions and even a screening of the new “Star Wars” movie, according to Karen May, a former middle school teacher and babysitter to some of the kids.
But the family has been tested in the new year.
Late on New Year’s Day, Emily Kate Beckham, the second-oldest of the six siblings at age 20, was driving on I-30 with her boyfriend in the front seat and two of her sisters in the back when their car crashed into a large exit sign pole. They were coming back from seeing “Frozen 2” at the Coyote Drive-In Theater in Fort Worth, with blankets and a mattress stuffed into the back of the car, May said.
Beckham was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash and the other three were transported to a hospital with injuries of different severity, according to Fort Worth police. May, who’s been visiting the family in the hospital every day, said Beckham’s boyfriend is responsive but in critical condition. One of her younger sisters had non-life-threatening injuries and the other sister is in a coma.
The family, May said, has been taking it one day at a time, spending hours in the hospital as they mourn a sister who had the ability to bring them all together.
“I don’t know how you describe a star. They shine so bright, but you can’t even see past the light to get to the details sometimes,” May said of Beckham. “I think that Emily was wise beyond her years. She could give insight to situations that, even as an adult, I didn’t see.”
Tributes have poured in on social media for Beckham, and a GoFundMe set up by the family to help with funeral expenses had raised more than $4,600 as of Saturday. Beckham’s described on the page as “our precious daughter and sister” who could light up “every room she entered.”
Along with the tributes there have been messages of support and sympathy for the family, whose lives have been forever changed by one night.
May, a 35-year-old Crowley resident, said she first came to know the family through Beckham and her sister of the same age, both of whom were in her English class in sixth grade at Burleson’s Hughes Middle School. Beckham, she said, was unlike any other student she’s had, able to “change the whole dynamic of the classroom” with her attitude. People gravitated to her, she said, and wanted to listen to her.
May remembers how Beckham would come by her classroom in between other classes just to talk, or take pleasure in sharing an inspirational or positive quote with her. When Beckham turned 16, May helped her throw a birthday party with glow-in-the-dark balloons.
“People wanted to help her,” May said. “We wanted to be a part of anything that she had going on because she was so magnetic.”
Beckham had May as an English teacher for sixth, seventh and eighth grade, and May also later taught her younger sister. She also was a nanny for the kids one summer and turned into a close family friend.
Spending time in the hospital this week, she said, the family has been held together by their sense of faith and their belief Beckham is in heaven. But they’re still devastated by the loss as well as concerned for the sister and family friend who were seriously injured.
The sister who suffered non-life-threatening injuries has also been upset about the official account from police that the driver was speeding before losing control of the car, May said. She spoke with May about seeing a white truck that had been following them closely and cutting them off.
But she hasn’t been focused on talking to police, May said.
“I think everybody’s just in shock about Emily,” she said. “It happened and they’re kind of moving past it. There’s nothing they can change, and they realize that.”
Beckham, who graduated from Crossroads High School in Burleson, was working at Bealls department store in Burleson at the time of her death, May said. And she was enjoying all of the time she got to spend with her family.
Beckham’s two brothers had wanted to go to “Frozen 2” with her on New Year’s Day but couldn’t, May said, while her older sister was in Oklahoma where she lives.
The family members who were in town were all planning on going to iFly Indoor Skydiving in Fort Worth the day after New Year’s, but in the aftermath of the crash, the family gave their reservation to May. She brought a teacher friend who brought her children.
They completed the slightly scary but exciting activity for Beckham, thinking it’s what she would’ve wanted.
“She would’ve wanted the memories to be made,” May said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 6:48 PM.
