Betty Spellman

Betty Maxine Spellman, daughter of J. Howard and Anna (Smith) Morley was born on a farm in Clay County, Kansas, October 5, 1927, and died at her home February 19, 2023, at the age of 95.
Betty and her brother Les were raised and attended grade schools in the Oak Hill community and the Oak Hill Presbyterian Church, where their mother played the piano and taught Sunday school.
Betty graduated in 1945 from the Clay Center High School. She could have gone to high school in Longford but wanted to take some secretarial classes not offered there, so opted to attend Clay Center. She (like a few others) rented a room with a family while attending classes during the week and occasionally was able to go home for the weekend.
After graduation she at first worked for V. R. Vergades Insurance Company and then for attorney Elmer Anderson.
Betty married Dale Edward Spellman Sunday December 14, 1947, at the First Presbyterian Church, Clay Center, Kansas before Sunday school. The planned wedding date had been set for a few days later, but they moved up the nuptials to hopefully squelch any mischievous pranks Dale's friends had in mind, and off to Kansas City for their honeymoon.
At first, they shared a two-story house with two other families. The young Spellman couple walked in the front door and up the stairway to the second floor where they had two private rooms which consisted of a bedroom and a kitchen/dining/living area. They shared a refrigerator in the hall, and the door to the bathroom they shared was also in the hall.
In March of 1949, they moved to a family farm east of Clay Center where they spent the rest of their lives engaged in farming, dairying, raising their two children and enjoying their five grandchildren. They retired in 1992.
Betty was involved in the community. Serving as a leader in the Hayes Boosters 4-H Club, was a member of one of the county Extension Homemakers Units, the Hayes United Methodist Church and Hayes United Methodist Women, and was a Red Cross Volunteer including writing up the news for the Dispatch. After the Hayes Church closed in 2009, she transferred her membership to the Clay Center United Methodist Church where she became part of the Alla Sera Cluster and the Piloteers Sunday School Class.
Betty had many talents and gifts. She enjoyed sewing, rock hunting, embroidery, ceramics, macramé, traveling, bus trips, genealogy and visiting cemeteries, flower arranging, gardening, bird watching, and feeding the birds, squirrels, quail, and the occasional stray cat. Most of all, she enjoyed time spent with family and friends.
One of the downfalls of living to the age of 95 is out living many of your friends and family members. Another one of her gifts was the ability of making new friends.
Betty was preceded in death by her infant daughter Virginia Ann, her mother Anna, her husband Dale, her father J. Howard, and her bonus-mother Dorothy; her sisters and brothers-in-law Earl, Irene, Bob and Irma; and her bonus sisters Betty, Ruth Ann and Janice.
Betty was loved and her life is celebrated by her daughter Linda and husband Dallas Cunningham; son Mark and wife Teresa Spellman of Clay Center; granddaughters Lindsay and husband Simon Sun of Olathe and Gena and husband Chad Abernathy of Raymore, Missouri; grandsons Scot and wife Elizabeth Spellman of Wamego; Jason and wife Mandy Spellman, and Cody and wife Nicole Spellman of Junction City; great grand-daughters Anna and husband Dillon Eyer of Boise, Idaho; Mollie Spellman of Wamego; and Addyson and Remington Spellman of Junction City; great-grandsons Logan and Luke Sun of Olathe; Benjamin Spellman of Wamego; and Chase and Easton Spellman of Junction City; her brother Les and wife Jodie Morley of Bartlett, Tennessee; her childhood, "like a sister forever friend" Lorene Fengel of Abilene; many nieces, nephews, other relatives, neighbors, and friends.
Funeral Services: 10:30AM Friday, February 24, 2023, at the United Methodist Church in Clay Center, KS
Burial: Ebenezer Cemetery, Clay County, Kansas
Visitation: 5-7 PM Thursday, February 23, at Neill-Schwensen-Rook Funeral Home
Memorial contributions may be made to the Clay Center United Methodist Church or Clay County Relay for Life.