Betty Grace Hart of Watertown South Dakota, died on August 6th 2016. Funeral services will be held Tuesday August 9th at 11AM, at the Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Watertown South Dakota. A visitation will be held at 9:30 am on Tuesday until service time. Family will be present from 9am until service time. Burial will follow at Garfield Cemetery rural Bryant South Dakota. Reverend Iver Possehl will officiate. On-line condolences may be left at the Osthus Funeral Home website.
Betty Grace Hart was born on July 10, 1923 to Peter & Emma (Shepherd) Thue at Bryant, SD. She attended Cleveland #3 Grade School and graduated from Bryant High School in 1941. She was baptized, confirmed, and taught Bible School at Garfield Lutheran Church, rural Bryant.
Betty attended Augustana College, Sioux Falls, for two years in 1941-1943 after which she taught grade school in Lake Norden for one year. She did office work in San Francisco, CA from 1944-1947 and returned to Bryant and taught grade school for another two years.
In 1948, Betty married Harold (Hod) Utesch on Nov. 20, 1948 and she worked at the Bryant Medical Clinic. Together, they purchased the Bryant Theatre in 1953 and she returned to teaching for another nine years until 1967 when they moved to Bloomington, MN, where she taught 4th grade for 17 years. Hod died in September, 1983. Betty married Stan Hart in Hayti, SD on August 18, 1984 and they made their home in St. George, UT. Stan passed away in July 1990.
While living in St. George, she did volunteer work and took many trips. She especially enjoyed the 3 week cruise across the Atlantic and visiting Australia and New Zealand. With her sister and brother-in-law, she was thankful to visit relatives and ancestral places in Denmark & Norway. Always on her “bucket list” was to visit St. Petersburg, Russia which she got the opportunity to do in August, 2014. One could always find Aunt Betty enjoying her reading, politics, sports especially the Minnesota Twins, playing cards, doing puzzles, or handiwork especially counted cross-stitch and crochetting. Betty returned to Watertown, SD in December 1995 to be near family. She was an active member of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church along with its “Young At Heart” group, weekly Bible Study and LWML.
Aunt Betty is survived by nieces and nephews: Ken (Jane) Thue, Waunakee, WI, Lon (Denise) Arneson, Chippewa Falls, WI, Ned (Joanie) Arneson, Hayti, Chris Thue, Dell Rapids, Mary (Peter) Manley, Wisconsin Rapids, WI & Mona (Frank) Cifaldi, Cumberland, WI, William Pedder, Oakland, CA & Jim Pedder, Orinda, CA. Also surviving her are her brothers-in-law: Charles (Marilyn) Arneson, Watertown, and Charles Utesch, Charlotte, NC. Her aunt, Evelyn Thue, Bryant. She is, also, survived by many cousins, special friends (which are many) and her special caretaker, Debbie Vetter.