In loving memory of Betty Jane Whalen, wife, mom, grandma, sister<\/p>\n
and aunt who passed on to be with<\/p>\n
the many family and friends that<\/p>\n
moved on before her on Sunday,<\/p>\n
August 9, 2020.<\/p>\n
Betty was born the youngest of<\/p>\n
8 children on February 25, 1933,<\/p>\n
to parents Lillian May and Jacob<\/p>\n
Heinrich Noblitt in Worden, MT.<\/p>\n
Growing up, Betty enjoyed helping her dad take<\/p>\n
care of the animals on their farm and helping him<\/p>\n
with his duties as an irrigation district officer.<\/p>\n
She also worked hard helping her mom package<\/p>\n
butter at the town creamery and clean other<\/p>\n
people’s homes. Betty graduated Valedictorian of<\/p>\n
her class at Central High School in 1951.<\/p>\n
Betty met her future husband, Daniel Whalen,<\/p>\n
her sophomore year of high school at an iceskating<\/p>\n
party. Dan was a senior at the time. After<\/p>\n
graduation, Betty moved to Billings, MT, to start<\/p>\n
business school where she also worked full-time<\/p>\n
at the local phone company as a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n
In June 1953, Betty and Dan were married in<\/p>\n
Billings, MT. In September of 1953, Dan was<\/p>\n
inducted into the Army and they left for Fort<\/p>\n
Ord, CA. Betty lived on base while Dan served in<\/p>\n
the Korean War. After Dan was transferred to the<\/p>\n
Reserves through Fort Lewis in 1955, they moved<\/p>\n
back to Bozeman, MT.<\/p>\n
In December 1956, Betty and Dan welcomed<\/p>\n
their first child, daughter Tracy Danielle. In<\/p>\n
spring of 1958, Dan received his<\/p>\n
bachelor’s and was immediately<\/p>\n
pursued by Boeing in Seattle, WA.<\/p>\n
Dan promptly took the job offer and<\/p>\n
he and Betty moved their sprouting<\/p>\n
family to Washington State. In<\/p>\n
March 1960, Betty and Dan’s son<\/p>\n
Scott Joseph was born. Their third<\/p>\n
child, daughter Morie Louise, was<\/p>\n
born in November 1963. The family<\/p>\n
made a brief move 1964-1967 to<\/p>\n
Satellite Beach, FL, while Dan worked at Kennedy<\/p>\n
Space Center on the Saturn Project. Betty and Dan<\/p>\n
eventually made their family home in Kent, WA.<\/p>\n
Betty was a beautiful piano player, seamstress,<\/p>\n
and enjoyed decorating for the holidays. She<\/p>\n
loved being a bookkeeper and keeping record…<\/p>\n
of everything! Betty was preceded in death by<\/p>\n
their son, Scott, in 1990 from cancer, Dan in 1999<\/p>\n
from Alzheimer’s and all her brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
Betty is survived by her eldest daughter, Tracy,<\/p>\n
of Seattle; her youngest, Morie, and Morie’s<\/p>\n
husband, Bill, and three amazing grandchildren,<\/p>\n
Shea, Wren and Dalton of Enumclaw; her niece,<\/p>\n
Audrey Johnson, of Billings; her sister-in-law,<\/p>\n
JoAnn LeClaire, of Idaho; and many other nieces<\/p>\n
and nephews.<\/p>\n
Betty will be laid to rest with her husband,<\/p>\n
Dan, and son, Scott, at Hillcrest Burial Park in<\/p>\n
Kent, WA, on Friday, August 21st. Memorials<\/p>\n
can be made in Betty’s name to the St. Labre<\/p>\n
Indian School in Ashland, MT or the Alzheimer’s<\/p>\n
Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Betty Jane Whalen <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":47039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-47038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47038"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=47038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}