|
| |
Betty Mae Caywood was born on October 30, 1936 to Bennie and Viola (Paulsen) Tice in Watonga, OK. God called one of His most faithful servants home on October 2, 2023. Betty Mae grew up on the family farm south of Canton and graduated high school in 1954. She attended Oklahoma State University where she met the love of her life on a blind date. John and Betty Mae were married January 19, 1957. They were married 61 years at the time of John’s passing.
Betty Mae enjoyed sewing, painting, and reading. She often found herself sewing buttons on dresses on the way to church or reading in her lawn chair at a rodeo. Her most favorite past time was spending time with all of her grandchildren, by blood and by association. Anyone that came around the Caywood family referred to Betty Mae as Nana.
Betty began her teaching career in 1979 after graduating from SWOSU. She survived student teaching Sue’s 3rd grade class and began her career in education. She decided that counseling may be a good trick to have up her sleeve so she went back to school and earned her Masters in Education in 1982. She taught through the coming of the new millennium and decided enough was enough and retired in 2001. Charity and Sue did con her into subbing a couple of times for them while they were at Enid and Anadarko. Proof of how much she loved her kids and would do anything for them.
She was a 67-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She served Canton OES as an officer almost yearly. She enjoyed writing skits, directing and performing for visiting dignitaries. One of her most favorite highlights was serving as Grand Electa with Norma Clark Worth Grand Matron and James McAlister Worth Grand Patron and the Starlighters of 2006. Betty Mae was a lifelong member of the Canton United Methodist church where she served the church in many capacities and played the organ every Sunday and for many celebrations throughout the years.
She was a cheer mom, basketball mom, football mom, rodeo mom, stock show mom, band mom, and a tired mom but she was always there for her kids. She tolerated Julie, Bill, and Charity while absolutely enjoying Sue; I bet you can hear her laughing now. She and John always said that they stopped having kids when they finally got it right. And then the grandkids came along and she did it all again….and then the great grandkids made their appearance and she was still there, doing the Nana thing with perfection.
This past Saturday Betty Mae and Sue had a girl’s day, getting a hair cut and her nails done. It was a great day. We thought she would be here until something catastrophic happened. Instead she got all gussied up and went on her own terms. Before her surgery in July we talked about the what-ifs because the risk was so great. She decided to “go for broke” which was one of Daddy’s all-time favorite phrases and that she’d like to meet Jesus face to face “all gussied up.” The timing was incredibly Mom. Daddy’s birthday would have been Thursday, October 5th she made it to Heaven in time for the party!
Betty Mae was preceded in death by her twin sisters and brother Bill, her parents Bennie and Viola, husband John, and son Bill. She is survived by her daughters Julie Foreman and husband Dick, Charity VanMeter, and Sue Hull. As well as a whole herd, gaggle, pride, flock, you get the picture she had 21 grandkids and 22 great grandkids.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, October 6, 2023 at the Canton United Methodist Church with interment to follow at Canton Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Canton Education Association for a scholarship given in Mrs. Caywood’s memory. Condolences may be offered at www.piercefuneralhomes.com.
This site may be freely linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent.
All rights reserved! Commercial use of material within this site is prohibited!
© 2000-2024 Oklahoma CemeteriesThe information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to Oklahoma Cemeteries to make it available online. This material will always be available at no cost, it will always remain free to the researcher.