Opal A. Beeson, who healed hundreds of skinned knees and upset tummies for 28 years as an elementary school nurse, earning the children's devotion, died Monday of an internal infection at Bayshore Medical Center. Before becoming a school nurse, Beeson served as a nurse in a Pasadena hospital. In 1961, she joined the staff of San Jacinto Elementary School in the Deer Park Independent School District. At the time, San Jacinto was the district's only elementary campus. Later, while still working at San Jacinto, she performed nursing duties at the district's Dabbs and Carpenter elementaries and at Lynchburg Elementary, which has since closed. Beeson not only worked in schools but went back to school. She received a master's degree in education from Sam Houston State University in 1970 and worked on a doctorate in education until the early 1980s. Opal graduated from Bender High School in 1941, & became a registered nurse in 1944 at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston. Her husband of 61 years, John Beeson Jr., worked as a senior inspector at the Shell refinery in Deer Park. He retired in 1988 after 40 years with the company. Besides her husband and son, Beeson is survived by a daughter, Bunny Beeson, of Deer Park, who is nursing supervisor at Gramercy Outpatient Surgery Center near the Texas Medical Center, Steve Beeson and his wife Sandi and John Beeson III and his wife Carol; grandchildren, Anelya Beeson, Brooke King and her husband Josh, Barbara Beeson, Rita Crenshaw, Meshell Drey and her husband Michael; great grandchildren, John Crenshaw, Jackson Harrington, Kyle Burks and Mikylen Drey; her special niece, Martha Turner and great niece, Melanie Turner; along with a host of other loving family members and friends.