Betty Lee (Tesdell) Thompson (1926-2012)
THOMPSON, TESDELL, OSMUNDSON
Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 8/1/2012 at 08:36:07
From Adams & Soderstrum Funeral Home obituary, Story County, Iowa:
Betty Thompson
BORN: June 3, 1926
DIED: February 28, 2012
LOCATION: Ames, Iowa
Betty Lee (Tesdell) Thompson died February 28, 2012, at Israel Family Hospice House, in Ames.
She was born June 3, 1926, to Sanford and Olive (Osmundson) Tesdell on the family farm near Alleman, Iowa. There she joined older brothers, Severt and Paul. Betty was baptized at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Slater. She graduated from Alleman High School in 1944, salutatorian in a class of four. She was also named all-county in girls' basketball, scoring 15 points in one game.
Betty attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, for three years, where she majored in journalism. There she met another journalism major, Leon Eugene Thompson, of Winner, South Dakota, recently returned from military service in WWII. They were married on September 20, 1947, in Slater. They had three sons – Thomas (1950), Chris (1953), and Robert (1958). They lived in Denison, Urbandale, West Des Moines, and the family farm in Alleman, until moving to Ames in 1962.
Betty worked a variety of jobs at different places through the years – Dr. Lyons' medical office in Des Moines, the University Bookstore at Iowa State, Central Junior High School library, as well as St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Ames, as the director of Christian education.
When she was 51 years old, Betty embarked on a long-held dream of becoming a pastor. She enrolled at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, and completed her work on a Masters of Divinity degree in 1981. After receiving a call to serve at Nazareth Lutheran Church, Cambridge, Betty was ordained on July 4, 1982.
Betty served at Nazareth for seven years. Toward the end of that time, she began to work part-time as a chaplain at Mitchellville Women's Prison and continued there after leaving Nazareth. Betty also served a number of interim pastorates at Lutheran churches in central Iowa and did preaching supply regularly.
Betty loved being a mom. Her sons remember being nursed from sickness to health with pop and comic books. She was known as an excellent cook and loved making special meals for friends and family. She was especially fond of desserts and was not afraid to lick her plate. Betty marched to the beat of her own drummer and taught her sons that it was OK to do the same.
Betty loved being a pastor. She took special joy in leading worship and preaching. She loved reading theology. She took great satisfaction in calling on those who were sick or shut-in. People who talked to her knew her to be an attentive and caring listener.
Betty was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and her brothers. She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, six grandchildren and one expected great grand-child.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 10, 2012, at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, 209 Colorado Avenue, Ames, Iowa, at 11:00 a.m. Friends may call beginning at 9:30 a.m. Interment will be at Bethlehem Cemetery, Slater, Iowa.
Betty loved flowers, but she loved Wartburg Theological Seminary and the ELCA Hunger Appeal even more. Those wishing to honor her are encouraged to make a gift to one of them in her memory.
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