Betty Bowers was born in 1928 in Conway, Arkansas. During the Depression when she was 4 or 5 years old, she moved with her family to Indianapolis so her father could find work. Her father was a monument cutter. A few years later, they moved again to Butler County, Ohio for her father’s work.
Betty lived in Hamilton, Ohio for a short time and attended Butler County School. Then the family moved to Collinsville, Ohio and Betty transferred to Seven Mile High School, where she graduated in 1946. She was a high school Cheerleader.
The family owned a gas station in Collinsville. Betty’s mother, Evon Welborn, ran the station during the day while her father ran it at night.
It was there that she met Bill Bowers one summer day in 1944. She was sixteen years old. Bill had graduated Seven Mile High School in 1941. He was 22. It was a Saturday night and he pulled in his 1941 Chevy to get gas. Betty and her friend were inside but her mother came out and said to Bill that the girls wanted a ride to Camden to go to the dance. She asked if he would take them. He had seen Betty around and thought she was cute. So he took the girls dancing.
That was just the beginning. About one year later on September 3rd, 1945, Bill and Betty were engaged. It was her 17th birthday. She graduated High School in May of 1946 and they were married on June 3rd the same year. Betty was offered a scholarship at Miami University to study English, but turned it down to get married and start a family.
The couple moved to Eaton, Ohio where they farmed and raised pigs and beef cattle.
They never stopped dancing. Bill’s father was a Square Dancing caller and hosted every Saturday night in Collinsville on the second floor of a grocery store. The dancing vibrations would knock the produce off the shelves of the store below. In 1954/55 they were the Butler County Square Dance Champions and competed in the National tournament.
Betty has had an energetic life and was always involved in something. She joined Delta Theta Tau Sorority in 1958, a philanthropic sorority, and was an active member for over 35 years. She is still a Member at Large. She is a former President of the Theta Mu Chapter.
Bill and Betty raised two beautiful children, Linda and Bill. Betty kept the books for the farm and documented the status of the crops, the work they did, and the weather of every day. She would run the tractors when they needed her to, she would cook the meals, and kept the house.
When she wasn’t keeping up at home, she was a clerk at the Producers Livestock Auction Barn. She also worked as Secretary for the Rockwell Equipment Dealership and was a member of the Parent Teacher’s Association.
Always a lover of the arts, Betty tapped her toes to music, hummed melodies in the car, sewed anything from pants to quilts, and loved to draw and paint. She is known for countryside landscapes that she painted on old hand saws she would find and clean up from the barn.
Betty’s mother, Evon Welborn, was put into a nursing home in 1991 due to advancing stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. Betty would visit her regularly to read to her or style her hair.
In 1994, Betty survived colon cancer surgery where part of her colon was removed. It was around then that unfortunately she too started to show early signs of her mother’s disease. Around 2 years later, after screening and tests, she was officially diagnosed with the onset stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. She has been prescribed the newest, most advanced medicines on the market since her diagnosis.
On January 11, 1998, her mother, Evon, died while in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s.
Despite the treatment of drugs to slow the progress, Betty shares her mother’s misfortune and is currently living with an advanced stage of this terrible disease. She resides in the same farm house in Eaton with her husband Bill, where he has been taking care of her for the past 10 years. They just celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. She recently joined an Adult Day Care program in Richmond, Indiana, where she attends two days per week.
Bill finds physical and emotional help and comfort from their children and their grandchildren who immensely love and support them both.
Betty Bowers
