Bette Jean Wales

Bette Jean McAdams Wales born March 7th 1925 in Kansas City, or so she was told. You see she was bought through an ad in the newspaper stating baby clothes and baby for sale. She never knew her birth family, or if they were from Kansas or Missouri. She claimed Missouri. She was told that the family that gave her up had 3 or 4 other kids. She was christened in the Catholic Church as Frances Theresa Coiner. However her mother always called her Bette Jean and the name stuck with her. From this family she had a Brother Edward Wasmer or Eddie as he was called, he was 18 years old when Bette was brought home. She was 83 years old at the time of her death.

Bette had a rough childhood. She had to drop out of school very early to help her parents work. She has told us stories of her and her parents hopping trains, the excitement at the time for her being a child - that was fun. She loved to dance. Her and Eddie would enter dance contests and follow the big bands around the circuit. They won many of the contests. She also helped her parents when they joined the carnival circuit. She worked the game booths and some of the rides. This is where she met the “love of her life” Harold Eugene Wales Jr., or “Sandy” as his friends called him.

Bette and Sandy ran off to Arizona to be married, this is where Sandy’s Dad was. Bette was just 16 at the time, and she took a bus and met him in Arizona. This was in 1941. The day before her 18th birthday she gave birth to their 1st daughter Ruth Dianne. Bette and Sandy still worked on the carnival as well as did her parents. They finally settled down and stayed put for awhile in Utah. They still had some of the rides, and Bette’s dad Carl now lived with them since her mother had passed away due to strokes.

Bette always loved having company around. While Ruth was growing up, it would be normal for Sandy to come in from his truck driving job and the living room be filled with wall to wall teenagers having a sleep over. The family moved to Texas where Sandy eventually became an Auctioneer.
Bette was always there by his side. Helping him in any way she could as did her dad with the Auctions. They then had their 2nd daughter Sandra Jean while in Houston. This was 20 years after the birth of their first child. The family then moved back to Utah for 5 ½ years. During this time Bette learned to love canning. She had so many jars of canned fruits when they decided to move back to Houston, she filled ½ of one side of a horse trailer and had to give several cases away to friends and “new family members” they now claimed there.

Bette was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - Day Saints September 10, 1978 by her husband, Sandy. It only took him 37 years to convert her. She always said she was just afraid that he would hold her down under the water, that’s what took so long.

Bette loved life, her kids and being by Sandy’s side. They had been married for 59 years when Sandy passed away in 2000. They had a blast at their 50th wedding anniversary and on their “2nd Honeymoon” – their kids sent them to Mexico City.
To fill her time after Sandy was gone, she continued to go to Auctions with Ruth and to keep in touch with lifelong friends and acquaintances they had made. Mostly she always listened to see if any of the Auctioneers could be as good as her Sandy. She would say there “are a couple that do pretty well”, and of course they were ones that Sandy had taught. She loved to trade and to keep up with the Auctions. She and Ruth have been living together since Sandy’s death, they had both moved in with Ruth when Sandy’s health began to fail. She enjoyed being next door – only a shout away from her grandkids.

She also loved spending the mornings having “gossip” sessions and deep discussions with her son-n-law Rod. She had worried so much about him the past 3 years with his illness that she forgot about hers most all the time. They spent many mornings and evenings looking out for each other and taking care of each other. She handled her cancer battle very well and survived the treatments with a positive attitude. She was going to beat it; she had too much to look forward to with her kids.

Her most loved hobby was spoiling her grandchildren. She loved them very much. This was one of the comments she made 2 weeks before she passed, that she would miss the kids and she didn’t want to leave them. They were her life, they kept her going. She wanted so much out of life for them, and tried to get them all that she could to help them to get there. She said she wanted to be there to see it. She always said she didn’t like boys, however when Gary was too young to go to school, it was Grandma & Grandpa that kept him and took him everywhere they went. So she found out she didn’t mind little boys so bad. She was so happy to see her oldest granddaughter, Ashley graduate from High School and go to College. She especially liked the fact she was working at Red Lobster, one of her favorite spots to eat. Now she could get a discount and Ashley could bring home shrimp to her whenever she asked. Bette attended school award ceremonies and plays for Brittany and Kindergarten graduations for Cassie and her great granddaughter Grace at the end of the school years. This made her happy. She talked about going to school lunches with Sandra when she was in school, and then the fact that she and grandpa got to go to grandparent’s day & lunch with Ashley when she was in Kindergarten, she just thought that was so neat.

At the end of her chemo treatments the “girls and grandma” went to Galveston and Kemah on vacation. She told everyone she had a blast. She said they only scared her a bit when they took off down the ramps fast pushing her in her wheelchair. She wanted to make sure the brakes would work ok.

This past November, she finally got her electric scooter. Something she had been wanting so she could be mobile again. Her niece gave the family tickets to the Renaissance Festival. Bette was able to break her chair in out there, wide open acreage. The grandkids that were there, Ashley, Brittany, Cassie and Annie and they all took turns along with Rod & Sandra at trying to keep up with and detour her from running down all the patrons there at the festival. She had a blast driving her chair around yelling wheeee and as she said, looking at all the weird people in their costumes. Of course the people she ran over probably were not too happy about it. While at the Regent Care nursing facility she told the therapist about this event several times. She also had to make sure she told everyone about who was in all her pictures that were there in the room, and she quizzed them about it the next time they came in. They were checking to make sure she was being able to remember some things after her strokes and she was checking them.

We know Bette is in a much better place now, pain free and with her loved ones that have gone on before her. We want to remember her for all the love she shared and rejoice in her happiness. She will be missed, but as we have explained to the girls we will see her and be together again. This is but a brief separation from each other in Heavenly Fathers plan, and it doesn’t change the love we have for her or that she has for us. She will always be in our hearts and a part of our lives.