Betty Kleeman, age 85, died Feb. 15, 2020, in Tallahassee, FL, after a courageous three-year-long journey through life with an incurable cancer. Beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she spent her last weeks at Seven Hills Health & Rehabilitation Center surrounded by family and friends.
Born Betty Adeline Cohen on Nov. 16, 1934, in Augusta, GA, to Clarence Henry Cohen and Rhode Green Cohen, she grew up amid uncles, aunts and cousins in the multifamily house and adjacent cottage her paternal grandfather built in 1897. During World War II her childhood home also served as a boarding house that her mother ran for military personnel based nearby while her father, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was stationed in the South Pacific.
Betty graduated from Augusta’s Richmond Academy in 1951 at age 16, then attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, for three years, where she majored in art history and fell in love with nearby Boston. She also met and fell in love with her college roommate’s brother, Hilmar Kleeman, married him in 1954 at age 19, and set up housekeeping in Nashville, TN, then home to Hilmar’s parents and the family business, Town & Country Cleaners. Betty and Hilmar raised their three daughters and welcomed three grandsons during their 36-year marriage, which ended in 1990.
When her older children left for college and in the years that followed, Betty worked part-time in successive jobs in Nashville at a women’s clothing shop, a house plants store, and a bookstore. She especially enjoyed her temporary professional stints in the mid-1980s as an on-site assistant to the Pritikin diet, exercise and cardiovascular recovery programs then located in Miami and Santa Monica, CA. She also worked full-time for several years in the 1990s scheduling patients for physicians in a large medical practice at Nashville’s St. Thomas Hospital.
Yet, her active roles as devoted mother, adoring grandmother, loyal friend and doting parent to many wonderful dogs over the years brought her the most sustained satisfaction and joy.
Known for her intelligence and way with words, energy, enthusiasm, friendliness, warmth, generosity, empathy and wise counsel, Betty was a celebrated cook and welcoming hostess; an avid reader; a gardener with a green thumb; a skilled Mahjong, Scrabble and duplicate bridge player; an excellent knitter; an accomplished pianist in her youth; and a politically engaged well-informed citizen. She loved the beaches where she and her family once spent so many happy summer vacations together.
Betty was a member of the Reform Jewish congregation Temple Ohabai Shalom (“The Temple”) in Nashville, TN, for 40 years, until her move to Tallahassee, FL, in 1999 to join her daughter Libby and family after they relocated there. In Tallahassee, Betty was a member of Temple Israel for 20 years.
She was preceded in death by her father, U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) Clarence H. Cohen; mother, Rhode Green Cohen; infant brother Isaac Cohen; brother Clarence Cohen Jr.; and ex-husband Hilmar Kleeman, with whom she enjoyed renewed friendship before his death in 1994.
Betty is survived by her twin daughters, Elizabeth “Libby” Fairhurst (Brian), of Tallahassee, FL, and Patricia “Patsy” Noonan (partner Rob Graham), of Pittsburgh, PA; daughter Kathy Kleeman (Stephen Webb) of Louisville, KY; three grandsons: Michael Fairhurst (Katie Forman), of Lakewood, CO; Will Fairhurst, of Philadelphia, PA; and Lee Noonan, of Pittsburgh, PA; and one great-grandson, Paul Forman Fairhurst, of Lakewood, CO. In addition, she is survived by her late brother Clarence’s daughter and three sons; the former college roommate who became her sister-in-law; and three nieces and two nephews from her 36-year marriage. Betty also leaves behind her precious dog, Cookie.
So many family members and dear friends made her life richer and final months better. She loved them all.
The family is grateful for the kindness of in-home caregivers from Visiting Angels of Tallahassee and the compassionate care teams at Seven Hills Health & Rehabilitation Center and Big Bend Hospice.
Culley’s MeadowWood Funeral Home in Tallahassee is handling final arrangements. A celebration of Betty’s life will be held at a later, yet-to-be determined place and time. In lieu of flowers, please consider remembering her with donations to the American Cancer Society at cancer.org or Big Bend Hospice Foundation at bigbendhospice.org.
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