Betty Billuni

BORN AUGUST 10, 1922, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

BETTY, AS SHE LIKED TO BE CALLED, MOVED WITH HER MOTHER AND SISTER TO THE NETHERLANDS WHEN SHE WAS NINE YEARS OLD. SHE WAS EDUCATED IN THE RIGOROUS DUTCH SCHOOL SYSTEM AND COMPLETED HIGH SCHOOL, BECOMING FLUENT IN FOUR LANGUAGES AS A RESULT. STILL IN AMSTERDAM WHEN WW2 BEGAN, BETTY WAS ACTIVE IN THE DUTCH UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT, AND WAS EVENTUALLY INTERNED AS A CIVILIAN POW BY THE GERMANS.

IN 1945, SHE BECAME AN EXCHANGE POW AND ARRIVED IN MARSEILLES, FRANCE, FOR REPATRIATION TO THE UNITED STATES. ON BOARD THE SWEDISH VESSEL, SS GRIPSHOLM, SHE MET SIMONE “SAM” BILLUNI, A U.S. ARMY PRIVATE WHO HAD BEEN WOUNDED AND CAPTURED AT ANZIO AND ALSO BECAME AN EXCHANGED POW.

WHEN THEY RETURNED TO THE STATES, BETTY AND SAM WERE MARRIED JUNE 26, 1945 IN MICHIGAN. THEY LIVED FIRST NEAR CHICAGO, WHERE THEIR SON, DENNIS, WAS BORN, JULY 1946, AND THEN IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN, WHERE THEIR SON, RICK, WAS BORN, APRIL 1949. IN 1952, THE BILLUNI FAMILY MOVED TO EL CENTRO, CALIFORNIA, AND THEIR DAUGHTER, KIMBERLY, WAS BORN, DECEMBER 1956.

BETTY BEGAN HER NEWSPAPER CAREER AT THE IMPERIAL VALLEY PRESS AS A PROOFREADER, AND WHEN THE FAMILY MOVED TO SAN DIEGO IN THE SUMMER OF 1962, SHE CONTINUED HER CAREER AT THE SAN DIEGO INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER AND THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE AS PROOFREADER AND EDITOR OF THE TV WEEK MAGAZINE. SHE RETIRED FROM THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS IN 1987.

SHE WAS PRECEDED IN DEATH BY SAM IN 1988, BY HER SECOND HUSBAND, IVAN CONZELMAN, IN 1999, AND BY HER SISTER, GLADYS HOLDEN, IN 2014.

SHE IS SURVIVED BY SONS DENNIS (TERRIE) BILLUNI, RICK (BONNIE) BILLUNI, AND DAUGHTER KIM (MICHAEL) CLANCY; SEVEN GRANDCHILDREN: KRISTY (HELEN), KYLE (AMANDA), JARROD, AND JERRY (ARA) BILLUNI; KIMBERLY (TOM) PRATT; RYAN (CHANTEL) AND JENNIFER GILBERT; AND FOUR GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN – SIERRA AND CODY BILLUNI; TOMMY AND HUTTON PRATT; ANDREA ANDERSON AND FAMILY; AND THE RUSE FAMILY.