Remembering the Walton family

Betty, a school secretary of 40 years, Bob, a farmer

 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story is an extremely abbreviated version of Betty’s life. It is impossible to condense 93 years of impact on the children and members of the Almont community without leaving out thousands of individual events.

Betty Lorraine Stewart was born February 16, 1930 in Detroit, Wayne, County, Michigan to Ronald Webb Stewart (1895-1971) and May Elizabeth Kaake Stewart (1900-1975). She joined sisters Eileen Elizabeth (1922-1997) and Donnagene Charlotte (1924-2013). Eileen and Donnagene (“Jeanie”) were born in Elmer in Sanilac County. At that time, Ronald was working as the farm manager of his parent’s farm.

Sometime after Jeanie’s birth, Ronald took a job as a milk salesman for a creamery in Detroit. He moved the family into a rented home on Irvington Street, which was just south of State Fair Road. Early in the Depression, good paying jobs were scarce. Over the next few years after Betty’s birth, he changed jobs seeking employment which would adequately support his family.

He got a job collecting milk and taking it to the dairy processing plant and moved the family to a house on the lake in Attica. Initially, the girls attended school in the one-room school house in Attica. First Eileen and then Jeanie moved to the high school in Imlay City.

When Betty was in fifth grade, Mr. Stewart entered into a sharecropping agreement for a farm on Shoemaker Road about half way between General Squier and Tubspring roads. This move would have a dramatic effect on Betty’s life. Betty’s mom was a member of the Eastern Star and knew a next door neighbor, Mildred Walton. The Waltons were sharecropping the Fergus-Lea Farm on Tubspring Road – just around the corner from the Stewarts. Additionally, Betty’s family began attending the First Congregational Church in Almont, which was also where the Waltons attended church.

Betty’s interactions with the Walton’s youngest child, Bob, made it so she didn’t want to go to school in Almont. He would pull her ponytail and throw corn cobs at her. She continued going to Attica and then to Imlay City. She graduated from Imlay City in 1947. Before graduating she began taking flying lessons at the Trott Airport. She did everything except her “solo ride”, so she didn’t get her pilot’s license.

After graduation she took a job with Detroit Edison in Lapeer, where she met Ruth Farley. Ruth and her sister Margaret would become life-long friends. They were became adoptive aunts to Betty’s children. She and Carol Currey (Heim) shared an apartment in Lapeer.

Bob Walton graduated from Almont in 1945 and then entered the Marines. After the completion of his service, Bob went to Michigan State. He would hitch-hike home with a stop in Lapeer to see Betty. Bob and Betty’s mothers suggested that they go to choir practice together. The one time they went, they finished the evening getting a Coke before going home. The match-making worked.

Bob’s parents sharecropped the farm on Shoemaker Road and then moved to the Fergus-Lea farm. Bob’s sister, Helen and her husband, Fred Eschenberg, then sharecropped that farm. Helen and Fred bought a farm on Kidder Road and Chuck Ferguson asked Bob to take over operation of the Shoemaker farm. Bob brought over his Holstein cows to add to Chuck’s dairy herd.

Bob and Betty were married on October 14, 1950 and moved into the Shoemaker Road farmhouse. Initially, they both worked to operate the farm. Betty helping with the planting and harvesting and Bob took care of milking the dairy herd.

About 18 months into their marriage, they started a family with the birth of daughter, Cynthia (Cindie) Ann. Two years later, Nancy Kay arrived, followed in about a year by Robin Lea and in another year by son Richard Michael. Unfortunately, Richard only lived about five weeks.

When Robin began the half-day sessions of Kindergarten, Betty went to work as a bookkeeper for Russ and Mildred Lovell at the Elevator.

It was about this time that Bob and Betty purchased the farm and needed the two incomes to make that possible.

The next year, Betty started a 40 year employment with Almont Community Schools. She first went to work in the superintendent’s office doing accounting/bookkeeping. The next year she moved into the position of Elementary School Principal’s secretary— working for Mary Spangler. When Cindie entered eighth grade (about 1965), Betty moved to become the High School Principal’s secretary—I think this move was to keep track of the “wild child.” She would spend 37 years in this position.

When Betty first started as High School secretary, there was virtually no help except the student aides. She was responsible for all of the principal’s correspondence, the teacher and student’s schedules, the contracts for the sports officials, purchase orders of materials purchased for the high school, the bus schedules and who rode each bus, interactions with the students sent to the office and their parents when necessary and meeting all the varied needs of the teaching staff. Over the years with more and more government regulations and a larger student population, additional help was added to the principal’s office but Betty was in charge of the additional staff.

Almont as a small school system rarely hired an experienced principal. It was Betty who had to train them to do the job. She was the resource that the principals always relied on for help when interacting with community members, students, teachers, and support staff.

Over the 40 years Betty worked at the school, the community of Almont changed drastically. When she started, Almont was a rural farm community where everyone knew everyone. It grew into a rural bedroom community with fewer connections with local businesses and people. The job changed but Betty changed with it.

After 40 years she retired in 2002. A large retirement party was held in Imlay City to honor her. Superintendent Steve Zott—who started as the high school principal when the new building was opened—told stories of how Betty had made his job easier and more effective.

Though she was officially retired, Mr. Zott kept asking her back to help current staff learn how to prepare for the start of the school year and how to wrap up the years when it was over. She did this for a number of years before completely retiring.

Betty and Bob were big on the importance of family. Every birthday was celebrated with a dinner at the farm with Betty’s famous three-layer cake. At Easter and Christmas, all of the families gather along with Ruth and Margaret Farley for an enormous meal and presents at Christmas.

When Cindie and I got married, I already had Jamey and Kris from my previous marriage. Betty and Bob accepted them as their own grandchildren, which made it much easier for my children to accept their new family.

In the early 1990, Bob sold the dairy herd, which made it easier for him and Betty to travel. They didn’t go far but spent time together. They enjoyed going to the Welland Canal in Canada near Niagara Falls.

In 2007, Bob became ill and despite surgery, chemo, and radiation he died on October 28, 2008 and was buried in the Ferguson Cemetery.

Betty was in good health and was active in the church, went to lunch with friends, and held parties for her children and grandchildren. She tended to her flower gardens in the summer and did needlepoint in the winter.

Beginning in 2017, Betty had a series of minor cardiac events. She was able to stay at home and take care of herself. However, in 2022 her health had deteriorated to the point where she need constant monitor. Reluctantly, we moved her into the “The Bells”, into a room where she could see the farm when the leaves were off the trees. In early March 2023, she experienced an event which the doctors believed that her time was close. They recommended that we bring in Hospice care. We took Betty home and got round the clock care.

Unexpectedly, after about ten days, the round the clock caregiver had to leave, so Nancy stayed the night. Nancy sat reading and about 3:30 a.m. She checked on Betty and she was gone. Betty was at home where she wanted to be. She passed on March 17, 2023 and was laid to rest next to Bob in Ferguson Cemetery.

Copies of the Almont Historical Society’s various books can be purchased by contacting Jim Wade at 810-796-3355 or jrwade49@ gmail.com or stopping by the museum on Saturdays from 1-4 p.m.