{"id":47038,"date":"2020-08-28T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/obituaries\/betty-jane-whalen-obituary\/"},"modified":"2020-08-28T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T22:30:00","slug":"betty-jane-whalen-obituary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/obituaries\/betty-jane-whalen-obituary\/","title":{"rendered":"Betty Jane Whalen | Obituary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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":[],"_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}]}}