Betty June DeBoom

DEBOOM BONNEMA DEKKER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 11/4/2010 at 23:30:21

Sioux City Journal
13 January 2010

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa -- Betty De Boom, 75, of Sioux Center died Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010, at her residence.

Memorial services will be 11 a.m. Thursday at the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church of Lebanon, Iowa, with the Rev. Jeff Scripps and the Rev. Duane Tinklenberg officiating. A prayer service for family and friends will be 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Memorial Funeral Home of Sioux Center followed by interment in Memory Gardens Cemetery of Sioux Center. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. at Memorial Funeral Home of Sioux Center. Condolences may be sent at MFHonline.com.

Betty June (Bonnema) De Boom was born June 27, 1934, to Albert and Henrietta (Dekker) Bonnema, in Hawarden, Iowa. She grew up in rural Hawarden, attended country school, Western Christian High School and then Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. She taught second grade at the Sioux Center Christian School.

On Aug. 12, 1953, she was joined in marriage to Richard Lee De Boom in the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church, Sioux Center. The couple spent the first two years of their marriage in various army posts while Rich was enlisted in the U.S. Army. After that they resided on a farm three and one half miles south of Lebanon for 11 years, then moved to Orange City, Iowa, for six years and in 1972, returned to the farm south of Lebanon. They resided there, farming and raising their four children until 1983. After that, they moved to an acreage north of Hawarden and then retired to Sioux Center in 1998.

She was a lifetime member of the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church, Sioux Center, where she was a Girls Society and Calvinette leader for many years. She also led the Ladies Aid Society for several years and taught Sunday School. She enjoyed baking, sewing, crocheting and embroidery. She willingly cared for grandchildren and great-grandchildren and was beloved by all of them.

Betty devoted much of her life to teaching and caring for others. She substitute taught for many years in area schools and in 1983, turned her focus to caring for others in long term care settings in Hawarden and then Sioux Center. In her final years she worked as an activities coordinator in the Franken Manor, where she was actively involved with the care and life of the residents until her illness made it impossible for her to continue.

Survivors include her husband of 56 years, Richard of Sioux Center; four children, Rick (Kay) De Boom of Hawarden, Jan De Boom of Wauchula, Fla., Patricia (Gary) Kraayenbrink of Venice, Fla., and Pamela (Mike) Hulstein of Sioux Center; 12 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and sister, Alberta (Norm) Horstman of Sioux Center.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents; daughter-in-law, Bev (Jan) De Boom; sister, Verna Bonnema; and brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Alma Bonnema; and brother-in-law, Ivan Van Houten.

The De Boom family prefers memorials to Franken Manor, c/o the Sioux Center Community Hospital Foundation.