Betty June Bates

OWOSSO, MICH. – Betty J. Bates, 79, of Owosso, Mich., went home to be with the Lord on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. Her family praises God for His faithfulness and that she is rejoicing in heaven in the presence of Christ with her husband, James "Jim" R. Bates, of Hartford City, and many other family and friends who have preceded her in death.

Betty and Jim were married on December 24, 1956, and celebrated 48 years of marriage together before Jim's death in March 2005.

The former Betty June Foster was born on February 10, 1933, in Blanchard, Mich., the youngest of six children of Leon and Anna Belle (DeWitt) Foster.

Betty played basketball in high school in Blanchard and worked at the family-owned general store. She was a graduate of Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan University) and attended graduate classes at (East Lansing) Michigan State University.

Her love for Christ and her desire to make Him known compelled her sacrificial service to her family, her friends and her students.

An elementary teacher in first the Indianapolis and then the Corunna (Mich.) Pubic School systems, Betty was known for her strict code of conduct, her desire for students to leave her classroom with the knowledge and confidence they needed to succeed, her compassion and intervention for those students who came from difficult circumstances, her quick wit and her sense of humor. It was her great joy to teach children of former students, which she did on many occasions during her 29 years of teaching in Corunna and her 35+ total years of teaching.

Betty became an accomplished pianist and organist, sharing her love of music with her family.

Her children remember fondly what a good sport she was through many years of the family's annual camping vacations in the Michigan Upper Penninsula. She was an avid reader and was often seen enjoying a book and a Pepsi.

Betty's family expresses heartfelt gratitude to the administration and staff at Oliver Woods Retirement Village, Owosso, Mich. Women and men who started as Betty's caregivers became close friends and like family over the past five years.

Betty is survived by her three loving children and their spouses and families, Philip and Janet Bates, of Corunna, Mich., Ruth and Jim Hill, of Galesburg, Mich., and Naomi and Randy Frizzell, of Jacksonville, Fla.

She was proud of her four grandchildren and their families, Rebekah (Bates) and Ben Miller, of Columbus, Ga., Bradley and Amy Frizzell, of Jacksonville, Fla., Steve Bates and his fiancé Abigail Kott, of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and Joseph Hill, of Galesburg, Mich.

Betty was especially thrilled to become a great-grandmother in 2011 with the birth of Chloe Belle Miller.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to The Gideons.

Visitation will be on Tuesday, Nov. 13. from to 8 p.m. at Nelson-House Funeral Home, 120 E. Mason St., Owosso, Mich., with funeral services on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 11 a.m. at the Owosso Church of the Nazarene, 1865 South M-52, Owosso, Mich.