Bettie Sue Shumway

Bettie Sue (White) Shumway, age 82, of Ottawa, Kansas, passed away Friday, January 19, 2007, at the Brandon Woods Retirement Community in Lawrence, Kansas. She was born March 14, 1924, in Tyranza, Arkansas, the daughter of Claude Earl and Maxie Lee (Estes) White. She grew up in Tallulah, Louisiana, White Hall Plantation near Vidalia, Louisiana and Catahoula Parish, Louisiana. She graduated from Vidalia High School, Vidalia, Louisiana, and Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, now Louisiana Tech University at Ruston, Louisiana. She did graduate work at the University of Chicago and DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, and Emporia State University at Emporia, Kansas. She started teaching at Haughton, Louisiana in 1946 as the first woman high school band director in the State of Louisiana. She then taught at Catahoula Parish Schools in Louisiana; Jonesville Block High School at Jonesville, Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois District 110 Cook County and at the University of Chicago, where she taught music to 3 and 4 year olds in the preschool laboratory school. She sang professionally under the direction of Leo Sowerby in Chicago. She moved to Ottawa, Kansas in 1961 and taught 5th and 6th grades at Lincoln Elementary School from 1961 to 1964. Mrs. Shumway started the Franklin County Head Start Program in the mid-1960s. She then taught vocal music in Ottawa elementary schools and was the band director for all public elementary schools in Ottawa until 1980. She taught Kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary until her retirement in 1988. She served as a Kansas State Representative for District 14 in 1989 and 1990. Her office mate was future Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius. During her time in office, she worked to restrict the expansion of corporate hog farming in Kansas and to rescind an overly generous legislative pension plan. She was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church in Ottawa, the Skilton Music Club, Delta Kappa Gamma International Society of Teachers and Kansas Retired Teachers Association. She served as State Legislative Chair for A.A.R.P. Capitol City Task Force, as a Ransom Memorial Hospital Board Member and on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Fraud Advisory Task Force. Her struggles learning the violin in college prompted her teacher to suggest she get help from one of the best violin students at the university, Keith Charles Shumway. On April 17, 1948, they were united in marriage at Sicily Island, Louisiana. They shared over fiftysix years of marriage before his death on September 7, 2004. Throughout her life, Mrs. Shumway shared a warm Southern hospitality with acquaintances, friends, and family. She was famous for her generous servings of wonderful food at dinners and parties. The Shumways hosted an annual open house for more than 100 people each Christmas. Although she received encouragement to make music performance her profession, her first love was teaching. Many hundreds of band and vocal students in Louisiana and Ottawa benefited from her passion for rhythm, melody, and harmony. After leaving band instruction behind, she brought music to her Kindergarten room, teaching the kids songs of every description. She was a faithful member of the First Baptist Church choir for over 40 years, frequently serving as soloist, and directed a group of First Baptist "Youth Singers" in the late 1960s and early 1970s.