Betty Jean Whitby......Age 88

GRAVESIDE SERVICE: 10:00AM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015

OSAWATOMIE CEMETERY, OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS

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Betty Jean Freeman Whitby age 88, of Spring Hill, Kansas, died Thursday, June 4, 2015 at her home.

Betty was born March 24, 1927, in Phillips, Price County, Wisconsin. She was the fourth child of five born to Frank Edmund Freeman, and the first child to Beda (Bessie) Otillie (Spolander) Freeman.

She attended school in Wisconsin and graduated from Rhinelander High School in Rhinelander, Wisconsin with the class of 1945.

Betty became the mother of five children: Mike, Steve, Linn, Rosie, and Rick.

Not only was she a secretary and worked in that field for several years, but worked with her husband, Carl, on their dairy farm for over forty years. (Carl’s family farm going back generations).

On January 28, 1972 Betty married Carl Lawrence Whitby in Ironwood, Michigan. Carl died October 6, 2014, they had been married for forty-two years. She then moved to Kansas, and lived with her daughters in Osawatomie and Spring Hill, Kansas.

Betty loved antiques and had a large collection. She enjoyed refinishing antique furniture, and was very talented with painting porcelain dolls, ceramics. She especially loved taking a piece of furniture and staging/decorating with antiques, flowers, etc.. She learned to fly airplanes, was a great swimmer in her youth (lived on many lakes growing up), and played the violin in high school.
She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother with many friends in Wisconsin who will miss her.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Carl, and her four siblings, Fred Pemble, Frank E. Freeman, Clarence Freeman and Grace Marie Freeman Bain.

She is survived by her children: Mike (Terri) Dutcher of Olathe, Ks., Steve (Laurie) Dutcher of Pembina, N.D., Rick (Nancy) Dutcher of Monticello, UT, Rosie Smithhisler of Osawatomie, KS and Linn (Tom) Troutman of Spring Hill, KS., Roger Bain (brother-in-law) of Las Vegas, Nevada, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren along with many other family and friends.