Recipes for Living Betton Heston

Gracing a wall in Betty's apartment is a framed cross-stitch poem given to her by Kay Chaney on her birthday October 22, 1994. The note taped to the back says, "How many times you have encouraged me, upheld me, prayed for me. This makes me believe this verse is really true. I thank God for you."

What made us friends
in the long ago,
When first we met?
Well, I think I know.
The best in me and the
best in you hailed
Each other because they
knew that always and
Always since life began
our being Friends
Was part of God's plan.

Kay has been a secretary in the law firm since she was hired by Bob Killmar, who preceded the Reynoldson firm. At one time there were two Kays employed there - Kaye Lescher and Kay Chaney. To distinguish between them Bob called Kay Lescher by her name and Kay Chaney by her initials, KC, which Betty still uses. In earlier days, when Betty worked for Querrey Chevrolet, the three met for coffee each morning at the hotel coffee shop. Kay Lescher left to continue as Ward Reynoldson's secretary after he became Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, and both have now retired with Kay living in Ankeny. Even though Betty has also retired, she and KC continue to have coffee together every morning of every work day, now at the Coffee Parlor.

Betty grew up in Woodburn and those who lived there several decades ago paint an almost idyllic picture of the little community, where everybody knew and cared about everybody. Small farms and retail stores provided for simple living needs. In town, in spring and summer months, there were green lawns, gardens, and flower beds; fall attracted tourists to drive country roads over hills and around curves to marvel at the colors of leaves. They had their own school, and pews of the three churches - Christian, Methodist, and Catholic - were filled with families. This is the atmosphere in which Betty grew up, along with her two sisters, Anne and Louise, and brothers Floyd and Robert. Her father, Guy Heston, was a "railroader," and her mother, Neva, was a school teacher before she married.

What happened? Consolidation happened, technology happened; transportation (highways and cars) improved making larger stores with more choices accessible. Several years of drought, which caused the land to be less productive, resulted in the need for farmers to find supplementary jobs to subsidize farm living, and young people - many of whom dreamed of farming as their careers - were attracted to more lucrative jobs in cities and other states. The character of the little town, ten miles east of Osceola, two miles south of Highway 34, has changed, but for Betty it is still "her town." This does not detract from her regard for Osceola where she moved in the early 1950s, but deep in her heart is the town in which she grew up. "You'll never take Woodburn out of me," and with participation of others, she is attempting to keep that image alive.

Approximately 100 people attend the annual Alumni Banquets for those who graduated from the Woodburn High School. Because of consolidation, the last class to graduate was in 1958, although the grade school continued several more years. Elected officers plan the banquets, and Betty has delighted the audience with readings which she entitled "I grew up in Woodburn when..." In them, lifestyle changes became apparent, and the audience responds with laughter mixed with pangs of nostalgia:

"I've been drinking Woodburn creek water again, and it still tastes of good times, good friends, and good memories of the town I grew up in.

"I grew up in Woodburn when the telephone operators inquired about your little brother's chicken pox and Grandma's rheumatism instead of saying, 'Thank you for calling AT&T.'

"I grew up in Woodburn when the first thing you did in the morning was to look out the back door both ways before you hurried out to the privy to empty the pot.

"I grew up in Woodburn when Dr. Bowen removed your splinters with a needle he sterilized with a match; or maybe wiped it on his pant leg. And the splinter he removed was never from the school banister because it had no splinters. The traffic on that banister kept it smooth as silk.

"I grew up in Woodburn when almost no one had a church wedding and almost everyone had a chivaree and some of us didn't have either one.

"I grew up in Woodburn when the only Parent-Teacher conference they had meant you were in real trouble.

"I grew up in Woodburn when we picked out our material for a new skirt from the feed sacks at the feed store instead of going to a fabric shop.

"I grew up in Woodburn when we had two holers instead of four wheelers.

"I grew up in Woodburn when we never dreamed of Cabbage Patch dolls with their own birth certificates. We made our own Betty Boop paper dolls and cut Jane Arden paper dolls out of the Sunday paper.

"I grew up in Woodburn when we were taught the 4 Rs: Reading, Riting, Rithmetic, and Respect

"I grew up in Woodburn when you didn't need an answering machine. You just called Central and told them you'd be over at your sisters and they could call you there or you were going to Osceola and would be back in a couple hours.

"I grew up in Woodburn when white margarine came in plastic bags with a color capsule we kneaded with our hands to have yellow margarine.

"I grew up in Woodburn hearing the story about some high school boys tying a calf in the school yard at Halloween. So the story went - a Trustee in the Methodist Church and an Elder in the Christian Church both claimed it and it really belonged to a Catholic farmer south of town.

"I grew up in Woodburn when we didn't use terms like recycle. Ours were make over and make do.

"I grew up in Woodburn when our Moms swatted us with the fly swatter or one of those switches from the tree in the back yard and we didn't even know it was child abuse. We thought it was called discipline.

The banquets are held on the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, which gives families an opportunity to decorate the graves of loved ones. The cemetery is well kept up and they are currently planning to put a new fence around it.

In August, there is also an annual Homecoming sponsored by various Woodburn organizations. It is a big celebration with a parade on Saturday morning, contests, eating stands, and entertainment both in the afternoon and evening.

Betty is a member of the Booster Club of 20 elected members. They meet monthly and manage the Community Center, which has a jam session every Friday night and a dance every Saturday night. For several years the Booster Club promoted "Ladies Night Out" in April, when they had a meal and entertainment for which Betty wrote skits which Booster Club members took parts in " - crazy skits, mostly depicting hillbilly family reunions or other situations."

Some years ago, Frank Morlan wrote an article about Betty in the Osceola Sentinel Tribune, and based on his permission to quote from the paper if credit to the source was given, the quotes that follow are from that article in which Betty told him her heart is in Woodburn. This does not detract from her appreciation of and close friends in Osceola, but still her heart is tied to her hometown and her upbringing and the lifestyle of those years.

"In 1946, when Betty was 16, she graduated from high school. It was financially impossible for her to consider college, so immediately after she graduated on Friday, she started to work at Robinson's store in Osceola the following Monday. After being their sales clerk for seven years, she began working for Lewis Chevrolet, owned by Roy Lewis and his sons-in-law R.B. (Slats) Simpson and Darrell Shepherd." The aspect that caught Frank Morlan's attention was that in her 40 year employment at the car dealership, handling the office, helping in the parts department, and scheduling service work, Betty never learned to drive. Her father taught her brothers, and she doesn't recall why he never taught her.

"Lack of driving has not kept her from being involved. She lived close enough that she could walk to work, or if weather prevented that, fellow employees assisted. Friends or a taxi enable her to remain actively involved in the Woodburn Christian Church and other community affairs."

In July 1969, the dealership was purchased by Lloyd Querrey, who had been a bank executive in Des Moines. He said, "Betty literally took me by the hand and taught me the details of the car business." Morlan wrote, "She was a self-taught accountant, paying precise attention to the exacting details of General Motors accounting requirements: ..(According to Querrey) she'd haul the books home at night to find a three-cent error."

Frank was also impressed by her "razor sharp memory." In rapid fire order she could recall that Lloyd Querrey...sold his first car to Rev. Henry I. Thomas, a black minister from Des Moines ...Querrey's first pickup was sold to Harley Cooper of Osceola...The first air conditioned vehicle was purchased by Webster Funeral Home (in 1957)...The first vehicle with power steering was ordered by Joe Ramsey in 1953." When she began working there, ''you could buy a new car for $2,000 - now that is the price of an engine."

At the time the article was written, Betty was doing all the detail work like handling titles and writing checks. Lloyd Querrey and his son, Steve, had the utmost trust in "Heston," by which name they fondly referred to her. A facet of office work Betty didn't readily agree with was the introduction of computers. Her assistant, Lee Ann Shell, did most of that work but Betty said, "There are now computers all over the building. I was reluctant to change, but now I wouldn't go back."

She had been with Lewis Chevrolet for 16 years and with Querreys 24 years when the article was written, and she continued until she retired on December 31, 1994, a short time after her 65th birthday. Her life, however, continues to be full. Betty is not much of a traveler except to visit her family in California and Minnesota, but just to take a trip for the sake of taking a trip, doesn't interest her. Family is very important to her and her favorite name is "Aunt Sue," her middle name. She has a special relationship with her nieces and nephews, the great nieces and nephews and great-great nieces and nephews.

Betty continues to be active for the benefit of the Woodburn community. In her church she teaches an adult Sunday school class, is the church secretary and treasurer, as an elder she presides over the communion table for their weekly communion, and during the worship service she gives the morning announcements.

Betty is also active in a four or five member St. Mary's Historical Committee to preserve Woodburn's Catholic Church. It has been closed for years and they are currently attempting to get it on the National Historical Register.

It seems appropriate to close her story with a closing she used at an Alumni Banquet: "It is in remembering that I'm glad I grew up in Woodburn. All the businesses I knew are gone. Many of the homes I knew are gone. Most of the people I knew are gone, but the memories are still here. And I always know when I come to the top of the hill overlooking Woodburn that these still are and always will be The Hills of Home."