Beth Margarert Schrik (Sallee)

Devoted wife and loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Beth M. Schrik, 100, passed away peacefully on March 30, 2018. Betty, as she was known to friends and family, was born in a northeast Kansas City duplex to Harry and Jessie Sallee. Her father was a streetcar motorman on the interurban railway and her mother was a housewife whose illnesses often kept her bedridden. Betty was happy when they moved to North Kansas City where she roamed the neighborhood doing cartwheels and handsprings, hopped on an airplane that had landed in an open field, and graduated from her beloved “Northtown High” in 1935. While there she enjoyed being in the pep club, playing sports, and serving as an attendant to the Owl Queen. Betty attended three years at Central Missouri State Teachers College in Warrensburg. There were only two young men there that interested her, she confided years later, and she quickly set her sights on the tall, good looking basketball center and class officer they called “Swede.” Betty and Al Schrik were married in August of 1940. During WWII, Betty and Al lived in Norfolk where he served as Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and she worked as a waitress in a Greek restaurant. Al taught physical education and hand-to-hand combat techniques as well as coaching and playing basketball and baseball. Betty was her husband’s biggest fan and often rode to games with him on the team bus. After the War, Betty and Al moved to Sylvia and then Hutchinson, Kansas, where Al coached high school basketball. In 1951 they moved their growing family back to Independence, Missouri, to be closer to Betty’s parents. Betty lived in the same house for the next 64 years, raising eight children in the house her parents had once built. She continued to live there after her husband died in 1979. Betty worked in a variety of jobs during her long life: secretary, concession stand attendant, ticket taker at the Englewood Theatre, maid at the Red Roof, owner/leasee of a KC Star paper route, antique store cashier, to name a few. She loved to travel; two of her favorite places were the Lygon Arms in Chipping Campden, England, and the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Actually, Betty just loved to go anywhere to get out of the house. When her children were growing up she would make daily trips to Curt’s Market or the grocery store, and she drove her car to shop at thrift stores and to walk around the Independence Square nearly every day until she was 92.
Betty had an insatiable curiosity. She read newspapers and magazines daily and asked endless questions about what was happening in the world. She liked to collect things, like antiques and dolls. She loved to watch her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren play sports and she even kept up with KU and MU basketball. Betty’s door was always open to any stray who needed love, in fact at one point thirteen cats called her place their home. She got excited about beautiful sunsets and loved to see the trees change colors. More than anything, Betty loved her family, her friends, and her freedom. Have fun and be kind, was her advice to all. Betty is preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband Albert T. Schrik, her son Dennis Richard Schrik, her daughter Jan Marie Young, and her grandson Jay Robert Dryer. She is survived by three sons: Tom (Jane) Schrik, of Chesterfield, MO, and Al Schrik and David Schrik, of Independence; four daughters: Suzanne (Bill) Dryer, of The Villages, FL, and Dianne Sallee, Marianne Schrik, and Lisa Jones, of Independence. She is also survived by twelve grandchildren: Bryan, Jo Beth, Zack, Cadence, Danny, Jesse, Kay-Leigh, Daniel, T.J., Michael, Kevin, and Meghan; and five great-grandchildren: Miles, Avy, Anthony, Aubrey, and Xander. A private interment of ashes will take place Friday at Ft. Leavenworth National Cemetery. A public Celebration of Life is being planned for this summer. To honor Betty’s life, please hug a child or adopt a cat…or both!