Betty Mae (Heistand) Gray 1932 - 2022
HEISTAND, GRAY, LOVELL
Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/28/2022 at 16:04:22
Onawa Democrat
20 April 2022Betty Mae (Heistand) Gray, 90, of Turin, Iowa fell asleep in death April 8, 2022 and is peacefully awaiting the resurrection into God’s promised paradise.
A funeral service will be 10:30 A.M. Thursday, April 14, 2022 at the Goslar Funeral Home Chapel, Onawa, Iowa, led by Randy Gotto. A live stream of the service will be posted on the Goslar Funeral Home website with Betty’s obituary. A visitation will be 5:00 – 8:00 P.M. Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at the chapel. A selection of Betty’s favorite faith songs will be played at 7:00 P.M. Arrangements are under the direction of Goslar Funeral Home and Monuments, Onawa, Iowa.
Betty was born January 11, 1932 to Roy Bryan Heistand and Minnie Pearl Lovell at the family farm southeast of Moorhead, Iowa. She grew up with her sisters Lavonne, Bernadine, and brother Elvin in the Moorhead area and attended country school and Moorhead High School.
On December 31, 1949 she married the love of her life Donald Henry Gray, Sr. Their first few years together they lived in the Onawa area until they moved to Turin where they bought the “old D.A. Wolfe” house. In 1962 they traded their house to Howard Hunt for an acreage south of Turin where they made their home and raised their seven children; Cathy Dawn, Donald Roy, Edwin Charles, Richard Dana “Dick”, Kerry Rogene, Kenneth Lynn, and Michael Shannon.
Betty enjoyed gardening, canning, yard work, and walks in the timber.
Don and Betty moved to Onawa in 1998. On March 7, 2022 she was thrilled to move back to her country home in Turin where she once again got to enjoy watching the deer out her bedroom window and was looking forward to going mushroom hunting.
On April 14, 1970 Betty was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. From that day forward she zealously shared the “good news of God’s Kingdom” with everyone she met right down to the very end of her life.
Survivors include her daughter, Cathy (Rob) Huntley of Whiting, Iowa, sons, Kerry Gray of Ida Grove, Iowa, Kenny Gray of Turin, Iowa, and Michael Gray of Clarinda, Iowa; daughters-in-law, Anna Hime of Onawa, Iowa, and Betty Gray of Blencoe, Iowa; nineteen grandchildren; thirty-seven great-grandchildren; seven great-great grandchildren; sister, Bernadine Raymond of Onawa, Iowa; sisters-in-law, Norma Heistand of Soldier, Iowa, and Trudy Gray of Magnolia, Texas; brothers-in-law, Bill Juhl of Atlantic, Iowa, Lawrence Gray of Sonora, California, and Floyd Gray of Sutter Creek, California; and many dear nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald H. Gray, Sr.; parents; Roy and Minnie (Lovell) Heistand; parents-in-law, Charles “Still” and Myrtle (Jacoba) Gray; sons, Donald Gray, Jr., Ed (Luanna) Gray, and Richard “Dick” Gray; granddaughter, Angie (Gray Palmer) Marlin; sister, Lavonne Armstrong; brother, Elvin Heistand; and many other relatives and friends.
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