Betty Graef had been in the care of daughters, hospice and healthcare staff while she suffered from lymphoma. She was 96 years old on Wednesday, August 30, 2023 at her residence of The Waterford of Plymouth, when our Lord welcomed her home.
Betty Jean Clark was born in Sheboygan on March 21, 1927, to Alfons and Edith (Wigdal) Clark, of whom she always spoke with honor and thankfulness. Betty was the second child of three, after brother Kenneth and before sister Mabel. She was baptized on May 29, 1927 in Madison, Wisconsin and confirmed on May 12, 1940 in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Sheboygan Falls.
As Betty attended high school, she found work cleaning, helping on her uncle’s horse farm near Madison, and serving at the soda fountain, candy counter and fruit department of Prange’s Department store in Sheboygan. She also enjoyed sports and working on the yearbook at Sheboygan Falls High School. After graduating in 1945, Betty attended Sheboygan County Normal School and then, in 1948, became a teacher at the Prange School in Sheboygan Falls. After two years of teaching in the one room school, she received a position in the office of the County Superintendent of Schools.
After her marriage to Arwin Henry Graef on August 15,1953, again at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, the family moved first to Portage and then to Poynette, Wisconsin. Once their four children were in school, Betty worked for the Portage Daily Register by writing news about Poynette. Her next job was in the office of the Village of Poynette, and then, finally for the U.S. Postal Service in Portage for 23 years. Besides bringing up four children and employment, Betty was a caregiver for her mother, served in churches by being a Financial secretary, Newsletter editor, teaching Sunday School and VBS, caring for plants and gardens and working with the altar guild. And then, of course, there were all those piano recitals, scouting activities and PTA.
Once both Arwin and Betty retired, they moved from Poynette to return to their roots in Sheboygan County as empty nesters. They then traveled together and enjoyed meeting Betty’s relatives in Belgium, Holland and Germany, and also visited Ellen in Montana, Steve in Maine, Russell in Virginia and Corinne in Indiana. Again, Betty was a caregiver, this time for Arwin, whom the Lord brought home in 2008. In her free time, she became a member of the Sheboygan County Historical Society, took genealogy classes, helped with her class reunions, kept houseplants thriving, corresponded with many, enjoyed keeping up with news, the Packers and the company of friends, neighbors and her family. She was able to enjoy Captain Russell P. Graef’s Naval Retirement (from chaplaincy) celebration in 2019. Visits from her grandchildren were a most precious highlight of her last years of life.
Betty is preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Kenneth, her husband, Arwin, and survived by her sister Mabel (Clark) Verhaalen, her daughter, Ellen Dodds (husband, Daniel and daughters Amelia and Ann), her son, Steven Graef (wife, Rosanne), her son, Russell Graef (wife, Dennice and son, Erik and daughter, Britta) and her daughter, Corinne Piazza (husband, Adrian and daughters, Magdalena and Mary).
Pastor Christian Gugel will preside at a memorial service to be held 11:00 am Thursday, November 16 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Sheboygan (after a visitation at 10:00 am with a reception after the service). While she loved flowers, another option is for a donation to be used to plant a tree on the grounds of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Betty was so good at remembering to say “Thank you.” Her family is most grateful to the healthcare workers from Embrace, the Waterford and Sharon S. Richardson Community Hospice who showed their care for her, as well as helpful friends- of whom we cannot name all here, but must mention Janine Bergeron. “Thank you” on her behalf.
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