Bette Barnum, Holly Matchett, Debbie Donaker, Cathy Douglass and I used to walk to school to school together down East Avenue. When I saw that Bette had died, I was really struck again by the "tricks of fate." Tonight I was playing around on the Web and I found, quite accidentally some records that indicate that Bette's young sons died on the same day in the 80s. Also Bette died as did Peter, her husband, in the same year two decades later. Help ! Does anybody have any more information? Bette was a lovely, lovely person. I am really stunned.... Diane (Diana) Sizer Shaw
My heart just bleeds at the thought that Bette is gone. She and Peter were married the day before Rich and I were married. (That means she was married Sept 10, 1966.) Also, her boys were just about the same ages as our boys. Her teenage sons both died in an auto accident right before one of our reunions, as I remember, and of course Bette did not attend our reunion that year. I wrote to her after that, but never heard back. . We were such great friends in our last year or so of high school. She was one of the finest girls I ever knew, and I miss her so much, as do so many other people who loved her.
I've heard this week that Peter is very much alive and back in Illinois and re-married to a flight attendent with Southwest,. He left Simmons Airlines before they became American Eagle and I happen to attended a pool party where his secretary was also in attendence. We were laughing about funny names at the time: Dick Peters, Peter Piper, etc. and she said: "That's my bosses name". So we discovered that he was still here as of last week when I again inquired about him. If any one knows otherwise I'd like to know, because we were on the same swim team at OPRFHS. I was a year behind him but we swam the same races. He had his 50th reunion last year. 14/August/ 2012
Diane Marie Bennett (Banas)
Wow! I didn't know that Bette was gone from this world. She was so talented and bright! She died way too soon!
Diana Sizer (Shaw)
Bette Barnum, Holly Matchett, Debbie Donaker, Cathy Douglass and I used to walk to school to school together down East Avenue. When I saw that Bette had died, I was really struck again by the "tricks of fate." Tonight I was playing around on the Web and I found, quite accidentally some records that indicate that Bette's young sons died on the same day in the 80s. Also Bette died as did Peter, her husband, in the same year two decades later. Help ! Does anybody have any more information? Bette was a lovely, lovely person. I am really stunned.... Diane (Diana) Sizer Shaw
Carol Eifrig (Silverman)
My heart just bleeds at the thought that Bette is gone. She and Peter were married the day before Rich and I were married. (That means she was married Sept 10, 1966.) Also, her boys were just about the same ages as our boys. Her teenage sons both died in an auto accident right before one of our reunions, as I remember, and of course Bette did not attend our reunion that year. I wrote to her after that, but never heard back. . We were such great friends in our last year or so of high school. She was one of the finest girls I ever knew, and I miss her so much, as do so many other people who loved her.
Richard Peters
I've heard this week that Peter is very much alive and back in Illinois and re-married to a flight attendent with Southwest,. He left Simmons Airlines before they became American Eagle and I happen to attended a pool party where his secretary was also in attendence. We were laughing about funny names at the time: Dick Peters, Peter Piper, etc. and she said: "That's my bosses name". So we discovered that he was still here as of last week when I again inquired about him. If any one knows otherwise I'd like to know, because we were on the same swim team at OPRFHS. I was a year behind him but we swam the same races. He had his 50th reunion last year. 14/August/ 2012
Robert McLaren
Here is a link to a site with some informatiton and a photo of Bette in a white cotillion gown. It is in Crawford County where her Dad came from.
http://www.barnumfamily.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I18266&tree=barnum
I could not find an obituary.
VTY,
RDM
6-4-13