Betty (Nelson) GATER

GATER, NELSON, CLAUSSEN, COPE, ELLIOTT, MORRIS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/5/2009 at 11:52:16

Creston News-Advertiser, Iowa
May 10, 2007

Betty Gater, 86, of Creston died May 6, 2007, at her home. Services will be 2 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at the First United Methodist Church. The Rev. Clark Finehout will officiate the service. Burial will be in Prairie Lawn Cemetery at Spaulding in Union County. The family will receive friends 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Coen-Beaty-Pearson Family Funeral Service, 809 W. Montgomery St. Memorials may be given in her name.

Betty Gater, daughter of Mary Margaret (Claussen) and Wallace Nelson, was born April 14, 1921, in Renwick. She graduated from Webster City High School in 1939 as salutatorian and received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Iowa State University. On Dec. 16, 1942, Betty married Morris Lytton Gater in Ames. She lived in the Creston area since 1953 and worked as secretary of the First Christian Church several years. Betty decorated cakes for weddings, birthdays and other special occasions. She taught cake decorating at Southwestern Community College two years. Betty was a member of the First United Methodist Church, Spaulding Neighbors and Business and Professional Women, serving as an officer.

Survivors include four children, David Gater of Nokomis, Fla., Ronald (wife Teena) Gater of Columbia, Mo., Bradley Gater of Nome, Alaska, and Jeffrey (wife Sherry) Gater of Colorado Springs, Colo.; brother-in-law Harold Cope of Cedar Rapids; two sisters, Donna Cope of Floris and Phyllis (husband Jim) Elliott of Flourissant, Mo.; three grandchildren, Eric (wife Susan) Gater, Brian (wife Pamela) Gater and Bethany (husband Robert) Morris; three great-grandchildren, Miranda Gater, Mason Morris and Logan Morris; many nieces and nephews; and other relatives. Betty was preceded in death by her parents; husband March 3, 1998; brother Merlin Nelson; and sister Joyce Cope.