Betty B. Gold (Justice)

Betty B. (Justice) Gold was born March 15, 1924, in Gorin, Missouri.

When she was 12, she lost her mother due to complications of childbirth. The family struggled to survive during the Depression, and Betty had to drop out of school after ninth grade.

In December of 1944, she married Bruce Gold and became a mother to his three children, Patricia, Bruce Jr., and Hazel. Son Stephen was born in 1946.

In 1949 the family moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, a town of about 6000 residents where they opened a Western Auto store. Daughter Janet was born in 1953. Bruce served one term as mayor of the town in the mid ‘50s. In the ‘60s the store was converted to a True Value hardware store, and it remained a fixture on Main Street until Bruce retired in the mid ‘80s.

Bruce and Betty moved to Baton Rouge in 1989 and into a house just around the corner from Bruce Jr. and his wife Lila. Unfortunately, Bruce died that fall after suffering a series of strokes.

In 2005, Betty moved to Surprise, Arizona, to be near her daughter Janet.

Betty loved being a homemaker and never regretted gaining an "instant family" when she married Bruce. She loved all her "kids" and made no distinction between her children by marriage and her children by birth.

She showed caring and compassion for everyone. For her, "How are you?" was never just a greeting; she really wanted to know. Will Rogers said he never met a man he didn’t like. It’s doubtful Betty ever met anyone who didn’t immediately like her.

She was a devout Christian, and she taught Sunday school and Bible school at the Presbyterian Church in Plattsmouth. In the days before high tech gadgetry, kids loved her "multi-media" Bible stories using paper characters and scenery on a flannel-board stage.

She did child care in her home to help pay her own children’s college expenses, and she was dearly loved by the children she cared for. Some of them kept in touch with her well into their adult years.

In her 50s she developed rheumatoid arthritis and tried several kinds of treatments to keep it under control. After moving to Arizona, she contracted valley fever -- a disease caused by spores in the soil -- in part because the treatments for arthritis had suppressed her immune system. The combination of these two conditions severely affected her quality of life during her final years, but she remained optimistic and thankful for the blessings she enjoyed. It wasn’t easy for her to hold a handful of cards, but she never missed an opportunity to play hand-and-foot canasta.

She passed from this life on March 30. She is survived by four of her five children, her brother "A.C.," eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.