Betty Lou (Clements) Lassetter passed peacefully to a reunion with her husband, Jimmy S. Lassetter, on February 24, 2018, in her home in Cottonwood Heights. She was born May 9, 1927, in the small mining town of Park City, Utah, to Dr. Thomas Earl Clements and Anna Snow Clements, the fourth of five children. As a child she tapped danced in church and civic events with her older brother Blaine. She joined a Girl Scout troop and loved the outdoors She became a competent pianist who loved to play Schubert and Chopin. She also played the flute in the Park City High School band and orchestra. She accompanied the school choir on the piano.
Her father moved his practice and his family to Salt Lake City in 1944. She transferred in her senior year to East High where she graduated in 1945. The new family home was, by design, at the foot of the University of Utah campus. She matriculated that fall and joined the Delta Gamma sorority. Her two older brothers both served in the military in WWII and the oldest, Howard, served in the infantry in some of the largest battles of the European war. The brother’s military service delayed their studies so that all three graduated together in June 1949. She received a degree in education. Her older sister, Jean, and younger brother, Roger, are U alumni.
At the University she met Jimmy Lassetter, a Tennessee native and member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Jimmy had been recruited to help lead the school’s football team. He proposed to Betty Lou after a brief courtship. They were married August 29, 1950 in the Salt Lake City Temple by Spencer W. Kimball and moved into married student housing near the stadium.
Jimmy played his final season of football during the 1950-51 season. Betty Lou taught second grade in the Granite District after graduation and in May 1951 bore their first child, a boy. Her husband was commissioned into the US Air Force that spring and began a thirty-year career in the military.
Betty Lou loved the adventure of moving around the country as Jimmy’s career in the Air Force advanced. They served tours of duty in Arizona, California twice, Idaho, Texas twice, Alabama, Nebraska, Hawaii, Virginia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alaska. Her mother thought she was a little daft, but Betty Lou thrived on the change and the challenge.
In between these many moves she bore five more children. Four girls and a boy (who died at birth during complications in delivery). When Jim retired in 1980 in Texas, they moved back to Utah and built a home in Cottonwood Heights. They spent the following three and a half decades in the company of their Salt Lake family and friends. Jimmy died August 27, 2015.
She loved her family and her church. She served in many ward and stake assignments in the Primary and Relief Society. She enjoyed University of Utah and BYU football and basketball games, Jazz basketball, sunny weather, the Hallmark Channel, crossword puzzles, and diet Coke.
Betty Lou was a loving mother and a devoted wife. She warmed those around her with her laugh and genuine concern.
She is survived by her son, Courtney (Julie), four daughters—Kim Colbert (Doug), Lou Ann Pingree (Tim), Susan Neff (Dave), and Carolyn Fjord (Johnny)—26 grandchildren, and 40 great-grandchildren.
Wasatch Lawn Mortuary will host the viewing on March 1 from 7:00-8:30 PM. Funeral Services are scheduled for March 2 at 11:00 AM at the Cottonwood Heights 1st Ward chapel (7075 South 2250 East). The family asks that donations be made in lieu of flowers to the LDS Church Perpetual Education Fund.
