Elizabeth Josephine "Betty Jo" Farrens Obituary

Elizabeth Josephine "Betty Jo" Hanson was born on May 12, 1928 at Decatur to Francis "Deacon" and Agnes Hanson. She attended Ball country school, and then graduated from Decatur High School in 1947. When her mother asked her what she was going to do with her life she said well tomorrow I am getting on a bus and going to Omaha to be a nanny. All this came as a big surprise to her mother. She intended to attend college and pay her own way. Such independence and determination would accompany her the rest of her life, she had a plan. She attended Midland College the next two years and had an eye on a teaching career like her mother.

On December 5, 1948 she married Leonard Murphy in Decatur, Nebraska. In 1954, Betty and Leonard moved from the farm to Decatur where their children would grow up. Betty and Leonard had five children; Larry, Gary, Kelly, Jeffery, and Joni. These children all grew up in Decatur experiencing all the closeness, fun and freedom of small town America.

She obtained her teaching certificate and started teaching at the country school at Divide Center in 1960. She also began a long effort at obtaining her college degree. Tragedy struck the family on June 12, 1963 when Gary her son died in a bicycle semi-truck accident just north of Decatur. Betty was a teacher next at Deman and Busse country schools. She next taught 3rd grade at Decatur while taking night school courses.

She married Dudley Hightree on April 25, 1968 in Decatur and they purchased the Decatur Mobil Station. They ran this gas station for about seven years. Betty obtained her college teaching degree in 1976 and took a job teaching second grade in the school system at Macy, Nebraska. Betty really enjoyed being a teacher. Dudley Hightree passed away on March 3, 1978.

Betty’s greatest tragedy occurred next when on January 4, 1983 she lost her only daughter and best friend Joni Cornish. Well after that we knew mom was a serious survivor as she pushed on. She focused on her teaching career and retired in 1993 to spend her remaining years among all her friends in Decatur. She saw many of them pass away which she hated but she pushed on and made new friends.

She once told a cousin she had not seen for some time that she had lived within a five mile radius her whole life and she was where she wanted to be, in Decatur. She has always thought Decatur was a great place to live and she certainly grew to be one of the town’s characters. She married Donald Edward Farrens in 1992. Don passed away on August 29, 1997 at their home in Decatur. She continued to live for the next 15 years among her friends while hosting family dinners and visits for her sons and grandchildren. In December 2011 she entered the nursing home in Onawa, Iowa still wishing to be as close to Decatur as she could. She suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s but still loved her Decatur and enjoyed visits from her Decatur friends and talked about those friends often.

She passed away on March 5, 2013 at the Elmwood Care Center in Onawa, Iowa. She will be greatly missed. Her body was donated to science as per her wish. A memorial celebrating her life will be held in Decatur on May 11, 2013 at 2pm at the Methodist Church in Decatur. She leaves to grieve her loss: a sister, Jeanette Maryott, sister-in-law Jeanine Hanson, Darrell Andersen and Glenn Brewer; three sons, Larry and daughter-in-law Donna, Kelly and Jeff; eight grandchildren; Michael, Michaela, Gary, Kyle, Shane, Carrie, Jessie and Luke; six great-grandchildren; Taylor, Jacob, Kayden, Jackson, Kinley and Liam; and many nieces and nephews; and a host of Decatur friends and family members. She was preceded in death by: her son Gary; daughter Joni; two brothers, Edwin and Phil Hanson, two husbands, Dudley Hightree and Don Farrens and sisters-in-law, Maxine Bartell, Mary Andersen and Evarine Brewer. She was a life-long member of the Decatur Methodist Church, and supporter of Senior Citizens Center and Decatur Museum. Memorials to Decatur Museum or Decatur Methodist Church.

 Information taken from the May 26, 1996 Decatur Alumni Banquet booklet

Occupation Teacher (retired)

Spouse, Donald E. Farrens

Children:  Larry, Kelly, and Jeff Murphy

8 grandchildren that all live in Omaha

      I am glad to have lived here my whole life and enjoyed raising my children with the help of family, friends and teachers.