Betty Lou Klingelsmith

TRAVERSE CITY - Betty Lou Klingelsmith, R.N., 84, passed away Friday Jan. 22, 2016, four months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

She was born in Lansing, Michigan, April 15, 1931, the second of three children to Thomas and Ernestine "Tina" (Bergen) Witchell (deceased). She married Gerald Grover Klingelsmith, D.O. Dec. 24, 1954, in Elkhart, Indiana.

Betty was the valedictorian of her high school class at James Couzens Agricultural School in 1949. She was a member of the first nursing class at Michigan State University, and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1954. Betty served as treasurer on the Suttons Bay Library board for many years. She considered her three children to be her greatest achievements and wanted to be remembered as someone who loved her children and grandchildren.

Betty's dream was to live on a lake, and in 1964 she and Gerald moved to a home on West Bay where they lived for the next 51 years. Betty was fiercely intelligent, independent and deeply interested in the world around her. She would drag the kids out of bed to see moon landings, space shuttles, eclipses, comets, and the aurora borealis. She enjoyed watching birds and other wildlife around her home, but bitterly resented the deer eating her flowers. She fed anything and everything that showed up at the door looking hungry: stray cats, birds, ducks, geese, and for a while, an opossum. She would rescue drowning bees from the bay and put spiders outside. She loved the bay, her yard and flowers, baseball, Monday Night Football and complaining about the weather. Best of all, she loved having her family gather around her to play cards and crack jokes and laugh and laugh.

Betty is survived by her son Kevin (Lynne) Klingelsmith of Ft. Collins, Colorado, her daughter Jessica Alley, of Salt Lake City, Utah, and son Kendall (Carrie) Klingelsmith of Byron Center, Michigan, and her grandchildren, Alex and Kori Klingelsmith, Munro Alley, and Brandon and Austin Klingelsmith. She is survived by her sister Phyllis Tucker of Haslett, Michigan and brother Donald Witchell of Bradenton, Florida.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Gerald Grover Klingelsmith D.O.
A visitation will be held on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 from 4 p.m. To 7 p.m. at the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home. Burial will be at Bingham Township Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the Father Fred Foundation, 826 Hastings St. Traverse City, 49686 and the Cherryland Humane Society, 1750 Ahlberg Rd. Traverse City 49686.

Kindly share your thoughts and memories with Betty's family by way of her online guestbook at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com .

The family is being cared for by the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home and Cremation Services.