Betty Jane Towne

Betty Jane Towne, age 96 of Waupun, passed away on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, at home with family by her side.

She loved apples and ate them throughout her life until she no longer could. As a young girl if they couldn’t find Betty she was surely up in the apple tree munching on a ripe red apple. Her apple picking extended beyond the bounds of her own apple tree. As the story goes one of the local families along her walk to the tiny one-room schoolhouse at the end of the road, felt action was required to protect their apple crop from Betty and her sister’s apple-craving appetites. They placed a sign at the edge of the orchard which read, in bold letters, “KEEP OUT, SHAW GIRLS!” As a child whose early formative years were during the Great Depression, Betty learned the value of a dollar and the virtues of prudence and frugality. Over the years she enjoyed clipping coupons and searching for weekly grocery bargains. This was just one way she worked to express her deep sense of responsibility to the well-being of her family. Betty was a hard worker both in her home and out. She worked many jobs over the years in partnership with her high-school sweetheart turned husband, Jack (married July 1, 1948), to secure the blessings of her family’s home. The work started early in life milking cows with chapped hands on the family farm before walking to school. Betty was able to afford to attend high school making money by providing care as a live-in caregiver to a family in her neighborhood. As time went on she would find work in the canning factory, and later she was employed cooking meals at Camp Byron in Oakfield, WI.

Betty was a deeply Christian woman. She looked forward to reading the Christian Herald. While she was able, she attended mass every Sunday. When she was no longer able to attend, she would fix her hair and get dressed for church before taking in mass from the TV broadcast. Betty fancied herself a Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus from the Bible. Betty, like Martha, was a woman of action; A woman who knew people needed to eat and houses needed to be cleaned. She was concerned with getting the meal on the table. She took great pride in the cooking for the deer hunters she would invite into her home every November. Betty reminded those close to her that she “ran her home like a hospital.” Her home and it’s tidy condition were of the utmost importance. Betty always said she would go to heaven with a broom and a dustpan in her hands. Once the work was done, however, she was attentive to her guests. She would sit at the kitchen table sipping a hot cup of milky black tea while pouring over the snapshots of relatives and friends from years gone by explaining to those at her table each and every person’s relationships and how their lives intersected hers and her extended family’s.

Betty is survived by her children, Thomas (Dianne) Towne, Joan (Gerald) Milton, Sue Bell, and Donald (Debra) Towne; fifteen grandchildren; many great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren; special friend and relative, Velma Frost. She is further survived by nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John “Jack” Towne; parents; brother, Wilson Shaw; sisters, Vivian Nelson, Cecelia Fisher, and Eileen Kelley.

A visitation will be held from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 6, 2023, at Our Risen Savior Catholic Church, N6499 Co Rd Y, Eldorado, WI 54932.

Mass will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 6, 2023, at Our Risen Savior Catholic Church with Father Kevin officiating. Entombment will take place at Calvary Cemetery Mausoleum, 686 Fond du Lac Ave, Fond du Lac, WI 54935.