Bette Barto

1928 - 2022

BETTE BARTO

Westfield, MA - Bette Jewell (Harris) Barto, age 94, died peacefully in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 28, 2022. She was born on January 22, 1928 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the daughter of Hugh Elmer Harris and Marie Elizabeth (Parks) Harris.

Bette spent most of her early years in the small town of Etowah, Tennessee. She graduated from Etowah High School in 1945, where she lettered all four years on the basketball team and played the saxophone in the school band. She thereafter received two years of pre-nursing education at the University of Tennessee, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University in 1950. She earned a nurse practitioner certification from Wichita State University in 1976, and a Master of Science degree in education from Kansas State University in 1983.

Bette spent the first eight years of her nursing career primarily in nursing education. She then joined the United States Air Force Nurse Corps at the rank of Captain in 1958. Her first posting following her flight nurse training was at Wheelus Air Base in Libya, where she served as a flight nurse on U.S. military flights between North Africa and airbases in Europe.

While in Libya, she met her future husband, Major Raphael (Ray) Barto, an Air Force fighter pilot. Bette and Ray married in 1960, and later lived on Air Force bases in Goldsboro, North Carolina and Wichita, Kansas. Bette resigned her regular Air Force commission in 1966, and transferred to civil service with the Veterans Administration Nursing Service in Wichita. Bette held various clinical supervisory positions during her twenty-two-year career with the VA, specializing in geriatric care and in helping wounded veterans readjust to civilian life. Bette also served as an adjunct faculty member at Wichita State University School of Nursing. In 1988, Bette and Ray left Wichita and retired to a house on Table Rock Lake in Shell Knob, Missouri.

Following her husband's death in 1997, Bette moved to the Lathrop Retirement Community in Northampton, Massachusetts, to be near her only sister, Helen Harris Clayton, and her brother-in-law, Joe Todd Clayton. After the deaths of her brother-in-law and sister, Bette subsequently relocated to Christopher Heights of Northampton and then to the Armbrook Village community in Westfield, MA.

Bette was an active and valued member of First Churches of Northampton, where she sang in the choir and co-presided over the members' coffee hour.

Bette was a lifelong animal lover, and was especially devoted to dogs. She supported many animal welfare projects, and was a familiar sight on the sidewalks of her retirement communities, walking her dogs every day in all kinds of weather. Her much-loved Keeshond, Max, was a faithful companion until Max's death in 2010. Bette was then joined in 2011 by sweet and feisty Suze, a rescue cockapoo. Both Max and Suze had special places in Bette's heart.

Bette is survived by her stepsons Randolph (Pamela) Barto, Russell (Samantha) Barto, and their children and grandchildren, as well as by her niece Jill Clayton (David Goldin), her nephew Jeffrey Clayton, her nephew Joel Clayton (Brenda), and their children and grandchildren.

Bette will be buried in a family plot located at the Lynnhurst Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.

Donations in Bette's memory may be made to First Churches of Northampton, to the Wounded Warrior Project, or to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). CZELUSNIAK FUNERAL HOME IS IN CHARGE.