Betty Lou Cope

Betty Lou Hosfield was born on July 11, 1935, in Paris, Texas to Cecil A. Hosfield and Alice Graham Hosfield. When she was a toddler, her family relocated to Neosho, MO where she was raised with her older brother Thomas and younger sister MaryAnn. Growing up, she enjoyed her Bluebirds group, piano lessons, summers spent with her grandparents Mayme and Nanan in Chillicothe, and her close circle of friends. She was Secretary of her senior class and a member of the National Honors Society in High School.

She attended Central Elementary School before graduating from Neosho High School in 1954. From the age of 10 until her marriage, she was the organist for St. Canera's Church. She and Harold "Dean" Cope were married there on December 19, 1954.

She studied for her teaching degree at Joplin Junior College, University of Kansas-Pittsburgh, The College of the Desert, and Arizona State University, where she received her B.A. (1972) and M.S. (1978) in Education.

Betty began her teaching career at Cathedral City Elementary School in California, later teaching at the Mohave, Pueblo, Cherokee, and Cocopah schools in Scottsdale, Arizona. She retired in 1997. She was active for many years with PEO and loved her bridge club. She and her husband Dean enjoyed traveling in retirement. They visited friends in Australia and New Zealand, took several trips to Europe, celebrated their 50th Anniversary on a Hawaiian cruise, and reunited yearly with family and childhood friends in Joplin and Neosho.

She was preceded in death by her husband Dean, three daughters Mary, Joan and Jeanne, and brother Thomas. Survived by her children Lance, Kelly and Greg (Vicki), grandchildren Jason, Stephanie (Ryan), Ashley (Gary) and great-grandchildren Ashton, Devin, Aria, Cambria, Carson and Nora, her sister and brother-in-law MaryAnn and Bob Toft, nieces Cathy Hosfield, Mary H. Poage along with their children and nephew Tim Hosfield.

A Funeral Mass will be held on a later date at St. Canera Catholic Church, Neosho, MO followed by interment in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

In lie of flowers the family suggests a donation to either Hospice of the Valley, www.hov.org, or to Saint Canera Church Music Fund, www.canera.org.