Individual Details
Betty Lee HELSTERN
(3 Feb 1935 - 21 May 1978)
Events
| Birth | 3 Feb 1935 | Dayton OH | |||
| Illness | 1947 | hemolytic spherocytosis requiring splenectomy - Dayton OH |  | ||
| Marriage | 12 Jun 1965 | Mishawaka IN - Lester WARD | | ||
| Death | 21 May 1978 | metastatic cancer of breast - South Bend, IN | |||
| Burial | 23 May 1978 | Mishawaka, IN, St. Mary's Cemetery | |||
| Miscellaneous | Abt 1936 | was a precocious child - Montgomery Co OH |  | |
Families
| Spouse | Lester WARD (1915 - 2000) |
| Child | Jennifer Lynn "Jennie" WARD (1968 - 1971) |
| Child | Geoffrey Alan WARD (1972 - ) |
| Child | Maria Cathleen WARD (1975 - ) |
| Father | Russell Fred "Russ" HELSTERN (1903 - 1973) |
| Mother | Vinna BOWERS (1906 - 1995) |
| Sibling | Carol Jean HELSTERN (1928 - 2003) |
| Sibling | Joy Ann HELSTERN (1933 - 2011) |
| Sibling | Mary Sue HELSTERN (1940 - ) |
Notes
Miscellaneous
Remembrances of Vinna (Bowers) Helstern, tape-recorded 1989 by Bob GrossBetty “I doubt if Betty ever felt good all her life. Her spleen was bad earlier than anybody else’s... She read everything and all the time. Very early began reading her own stories – so did [Carol who] was reading to the SS girls of my class before she went to school.
One of Betty’s favorite stories was Ferdinand the Bull.... She’d go through the pictures of it and she’d tell you the story and turn the pages at the right place. One day she came out to the kitchen while I was washing dishes. ‘Mother, goats butt people, don’t they? Well, bulls butt each other, too.’ Then, after a long pause, “Bulls are just like cows only they don’t have faucets.’ I was able to listen without laughing.... Betty, talking about the jiggers at Sugar Grove; ‘Well, are they invisible?’ A tiny person using words like that..."
Endnotes
1. Memories of family stories, personal memory.
2. Betty (Helstern) Ward - slides taken, 1964-1971 , NA.
3. Memories of Vinna BOWERS Helstern as shared with family, tape #3.