Betty Eileen (Rockwell) Wells, passed away at age 96 on August 12, 2018, in Stockton, California, where she had lived for the past five years.
She was born in Fowler, CA, but lived most of her youth in Taft. She graduated from Taft High School where she took a special course in bookkeeping and accounting and won an award as the fastest typist. Her father, Henry Clay Rockwell, was killed in an automobile accident when she was 14, leaving her mother, Irene (Hittle) Rockwell to raise Betty, her brother Murry and sister Peggy. During her youth, Betty worked in her Aunt Nell’s boarding house, serving meals to the oil workers who came to the area for work during the oil boom.
One of her great loves was music. She played the piano, organ, accordion and guitar, and it was music that brought her and her husband, Paul Monroe Wells, together. He had been singing in church and a gospel radio show and needed an accompanist. His saxophone and her keyboards, his baritone and her alto made a winning combination that lasted 58 years, singing and preaching the gospel across the continent and in more than 2 dozen countries around the world.
They were married Sept. 28, 1940, and were active in local church and radio ministry until Paul was drafted during World War II. Not to let a war separate them, Betty traveled to be near him during his tour as a supply sergeant in the Army medical corps in Camp Barkeley in Abilene, Texas, and Camp Crowder near Joplin, Missouri. She worked in the base dental offices by day and, outside military duties, they were mentored by pastors Rev. Tom McCann (Abilene) and Rev. S.K. Biffle (Joplin) and worked in youth ministry, music ministry, radio and street ministry. Following Paul’s discharge in 1942, they traveled in evangelistic ministry for two and a half years preaching and singing throughout California and across the U.S. Many of the ministers and pastors they met during this time continued to be lifelong friends and mentors.
In 1949, they were elected to serve as pastors of the First Assembly of God Church in Santa Paula, CA. The young church met in a small converted house, and the parsonage where they lived had a dirt floor. From these humble beginnings, they eventually built a new church seating 350 and expanded the facilities three times, adding a fellowship hall, offices and classrooms and a preschool through 1st grade Christian School.
During their years in Santa Paula, Betty worked for some years at the Bank of America, but eventually became a full-time pastor’s wife, as well secretary for the church, pianist and organist. They also continued their evangelistic ministry, for which she was the secretary, bookkeeper, correspondent and music coordinator. They served as senior pastors for nearly 40 years, and founded a 40-voice concert choir that traveled to sing at churches throughout Southern California, held evangelistic outreaches throughout California and the U.S. and missionary outreaches in Europe, Africa, India, Indonesia, Haiti and Puerto Rico, among others. Through their missionary fundraising efforts, they helped support feeding programs and orphanages in Calcutta, India, and plant churches in Kenya, East Africa. They recorded a weekly radio broadcast in Ventura County and produced more than a dozen long play albums, including, “Million Miles of Song,” which received a four-star rating from Billboard magazine in the gospel category.
They also were dedicated mentors. Having come from humble beginnings, they had benefited greatly from mentoring early in their lives and believed in investing in the lives of others. Over the years a number of young people and others who were struggling through a difficult time were invited to stay in their home for a season. Betty’s nurturing heart, listening ear and wise counsel helped many through their toughest challenges. They hosted many young pastors, missionaries and evangelists for special services and revival meetings for whom they served as mentors and encouragers. They were always happy to have one of Betty’s home-cooked meals and appreciated her love and encouragement - and her piano playing.
She loved children but was destined for a small family. After a miscarriage in 1948, they tried to foster-adopt a young boy and girl, but were broken-hearted when, instead, the children were reunited with their biological parent. God finally blessed them with a miracle daughter, Sheri Lee, in 1954. Betty had contracted cervical cancer while she was carrying the child and doctors did not give them much hope that she would survive. Through God’s grace, Sheri was born healthy and whole, but would be their only child. Tragedy struck again five years later when an accident nearly took Sheri’s life. Again, God’s grace was sufficient to heal and bring her through. Betty was thrice blessed in later years with three beautiful grandchildren, whom she doted on and spoiled at every opportunity.
When they retired in 1987, she worked for about four years as a real estate agent for Century 21. They later received another call to service and returned to their roots in Kern County to another fruitful ministry as pastors to the seniors of Canyon Hills Assembly of God Church in Bakersfield. They served there in pastoral care and organized social and travel opportunities for the church’s senior community for nearly 10 years. Betty also volunteered for Bakersfield Family Medical Center as an ambassador for several years.
After her husband passed away in 1998 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease, She moved into the Florence Gardens senior community she organized trips and social events for the community and helped found the Silvertones choir. The choir ministered in senior living centers as well as churches and religious gatherings locally and throughout Southern California. As her own health declined in her final years, she moved to Stockton to be close to her only daughter.
She will be remembered for her love for God, family and friends, her faith, warmth, creativity, wisdom, humor and love.
Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband, her brother, Murry Rockwell; and sister, Peggy Baca. Betty is survived by her daughter, Sheri Grimes and husband Larry; her three grandchildren: Glenn Paul Grimes and wife Alicia, Patrick Grimes and wife Shuo, and Lisa Grimes Linder and husband Robert; four great-grandchildren: Parker Grimes, Avinna Grimes, Oliver Linder and Avery Linder; niece, Tracy Hunter and family; nephews, John Baca, Bob Rockwell and Steve Rockwell and their families; and sister-in-law Roma McCaffrey.
Friends and family are invited to a celebration of life, officiated by Rev. Wendell Vinson of Canyon Hills Assembly of God Church, on Saturday, August 25, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel at Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mortuary, 9101 Kern Canyon Road, Bakersfield, California, 93306, (661) 366-5766.
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