Betty Ruth Wesley

What matters in life is not the size of the wave you go out on, but the impact of the ripples you leave in your wake. The impact of the simplest life can be the farthest reaching, and Betty June Wesley probably had no idea how deeply she touched so many. Smart and sassy, fiery and kind, generous and incredibly strong, Betty made her life her own until the day she surrendered it to God.

Born Betty June Bailey in Oklahoma City, June 6, 1932, Betty was close to the red land all her life. She grew gardens, snapped beans, canned beets, skinned catfish, and even claimed to have a pecan farm. The rest of us thought it was mostly a forsaken piece of dusty ground with a few stubborn trees, but she insisted it was a farm. She loved her flowers, especially the blue ones—even if she had to dye them blue herself. Cats and birds had to learn to get along on her property, because she was always going to feed them both.

Betty attended Jones and Capitol Hill High Schools, but a handsome man with dark curls and blue eyes captured her attention her senior year, and she did not finish her degree. She was visiting family, helping out by hanging clothes on the line in the backyard, when John Wesley caught sight of her for the first time. He told a friend, “You see that girl? I’m going to marry her.” Two weeks later, on February 19, 1950, they were wed. They would be married for 61 years.

They had two children, John Richard and Cynthia Ellen. Betty may not have finished high school, but she was mother, wife, and business manager for her family, managing the extensive bills and contracts and service agreements for her contractor husband. When times called for it, she took whatever work she could, be it at an ice cream factory or a school cafeteria. Her heart, however, was always in her home. Her children grew to rely on her as their closest friend, with rarely a day passing even in adulthood that they did not speak.

Betty was a friend wherever she went, whether in the neighborhood, at the church building, at the lake, or--of course—at the swap meet. She took the sometimes unconventional lives of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in stride, loving them unconditionally. She was always there whenever they made their prodigal returns, arms open without reservation. Hers was a heart that waited faithfully. She lived the motto, “Be humble and kind.”

For those of you have never tasted Betty’s biscuits and gravy or her chicken and dumplings, you should probably be grateful. Those of us who have, will never be truly satisfied with anyone else’s. On the other hand, she is probably delighted beyond reason to have found a land where she doesn’t have any catfish to skin. The angels won’t know what they’re missing.

Betty was a faithful Christian who was blessed by many beloved brothers and sisters who brought Christ to her when she could no longer take Him out into the world. She is survived by her son, John Richard Wesley, and his wife Glenda; and her daughter, Cynthia Ellen Baty, and her husband Robert; her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her nieces and nephews, and the many friends and children whom she adopted as family. Although she is gone, the ripples from her life will continue to be felt in our hearts, and in the hearts of those we touch as ones made better by her presence in our lives.

She was truly a mother who invested her life in her family. Her memory will be forever cherished by her friends and family.

Arrangements under the direction of Sunny Lane Funeral Home, Del City, OK.