Betty Marie Sapp, 91

Betty Marie Sapp was born to John George Wohlers and Amelia Margaret Wittman, September 8, 1927, in the Wohlers’ farmhouse east of Le Center, Minnesota.  She was a baptized and confirmed member of St. Paul Lutheran Church in LeCenter. She attended country school through second grade. When her oldest sister, Ruth, started high school, Betty began attending school in town. She graduated from McKinley High School in 1945.

Betty grew up during the Depression and war years. There wasn’t extra money but they always had food to eat and family and friends to share it with. Betty never had a store bought dress, but had dresses lovingly made by her Mom. During the war years, her Mother would make dresses out of the flour sacks. They didn’t have the money to go to movies, but Betty made mud pies with an occasional egg nabbed from the hen house, swam with her siblings in the huge cow watering tank when Murrays filled it first thing in the Spring, and helped her Mom with chores like shucking ground cherries each fall. Dresses, not slacks, were always worn – even for playing Annie, Annie Over, Hop Scotch, Fox and the Goose, and riding bike or playing on the rope swing. Social activities and fun almost always involved the neighbors across the road. The Murrays and later, Edith (Murray) and Joe Tambornino became lifelong friends. There were hundreds of card games played, get-togethers with plenty of food and usually home-made ice cream. 

After Betty graduated, she worked at the Le Sueur County Court House in the Triple A Office (AAA stood for the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a federal law of the New Deal era). She was a secretary and later the Office Manager during her five years working on the 3rd floor of the court house. Betty and a good friend decided they wanted to work in the cities so they both found jobs and moved to downtown Minneapolis in late 1949. Mom was a secretary for the Kalvinator Ice Cream Cabinet Division.

Betty was asked out by her future husband and companion of 54 years shortly after she moved to the city. She knew him a bit from being in Church Choir together. Dale and Betty had a fairly short courtship and were married on September 24, 1950 at the church where both of them had been baptized and confirmed. Their marriage was blessed with
four children: Robert, Ruth, Rita and Robyn.

Betty loved being a Mother and a farmwife; she was known by many for her warm welcome to anyone who appeared at the door. There were always cookies, cake or maybe a crisp or pie to serve so they wouldn’t go away hungry. Cooking for farm hands, threshing crews, and silo fillers meant planning and preparing a full meal – meat, potatoes, vegetables, breads, and always dessert. When the men were working in the fields, Betty would make lunch and drive it out to the field. Betty was in her element in the kitchen – always wearing an apron with pockets that were filled with odds and ends from that day.

Music was a constant throughout both Betty and Dale’s lives. Their parents were musical and Betty and Dale both played piano and sang. They, in turn, supported their children’s passion for a variety of musical endeavors, faithfully in attendance at performances ranging from church picnics to talent contests, and high school and college concerts to listening to 1980’s Top 40 at the Blazer Lounge. When the next generation also became heavily involved in music, Betty wasn’t able to go out to hear them, but would sit outside the music room door listening to their latest piano lesson material. This gift of support for music will continue to influence Betty and Dale’s descendants for years to come.

Betty and Dale complimented each other perfectly through their 54 years of marriage and together provided a strong, secure and loving foundation for their family. When asked years ago for parenting advice, Mom said that the most important thing she could think of is to spend time with your kids and to do things together. She also said that right and wrong needed to be taught every day from little on.

Betty Sapp passed from this world to eternal life on August 31, 2019 at Benedictine Living Community in St. Peter, MN.  Betty is survived by two sisters; Darleen (Ganfield)  and Sylvester Schreitmueller of Apple Valley, Maribell Chauncey, also of Apple Valley; one son, Robert and Jane of LeCenter; daughter, Rita of New Prague; daughter, Robyn and Carl Menk of LeCenter; 11 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Dale; her oldest sister, Ruth, her only brother, George, and her oldest daughter, Ruth. Even though Betty’s absence in this life is keenly felt, there is a joyous reunion taking place in heaven!

Our family would like to thank the staff at Benedictine Living Community in St. Peter, MN where Mom has made her home since June of 2014. The nurses and aides who helped with her daily needs, the custodial staff who patiently came to Mom's room to change batteries, fix her TV, and do numerous other little "tasks" that Mom would think of, the understanding kitchen staff who made trips back and forth to the milk carton and microwave until Mom's oatmeal was just right, and so many others too numerous to mention - we appreciate your loving care for our Mom.

Visitation will be Friday, September 6th, 2019 from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m., with the Celebration of Betty’s Life following at 11:00 a.m. The family extends a warm welcome for everyone to gather for lunch after the service.
   
2 Corinthians 5:6 -
Now we look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies, realizing that every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus! 

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