Betty Jo (Day) Banks was born February 26, 1933 in Washington, KS to Everett E. & Louisa (Durst) Day. She passed away on May 30, 2020 at the Downs Care & Rehab facility in Downs, KS.
Betty Jo attended & graduated high school in Colorado Springs, CO before attending the University of Colorado with plans to study criminal law. Plans were changed when Dale A. Banks gave her a wink! They were married at the Rose Valley Methodist Church on December 2, 1951. Betty Jo stayed busy raising 3 daughters, as well as helping start Kindergarten classes in Downs, working as a Stanley Home Products representative & working with the county extension helping teach young housewives homemaking skills. She then became Activiites Director at Mid America Nursing Home in Downs. She continued to study & received her Nursing Home Administrator's license & began as administrator at Parkview Care Center in Osborne, a job that she held for over 30 yeas until her retirement in 2012.
Betty Jo was a member of the Downs United Methodist Church where she served as lay leader, choir director & Sunday School teacher. She was also involved with the Miss Solomon Valley beauty pageant as well as Kansas Junior Miss ....not only helping different young ladies in aspirations to be the Kansas Junior Miss .... but some years also judging the event. She has also been active in the Downs Lions Club as well as their District & State programs. She is also a member of the VFW Auxiliary in Osborne.
Betty Jo's love of God & music led her to lead several singing groups: The Highlighters, The Challengers & the North Central Christian Choir (30 years as their director). Betty Jo had a love for music but it took second place to the love of her life, her husband, Dale. They had many good years together & many memories of the dances they went to as well as the other couples that attended also. Her 3 daughters brought her much joy in life, but, Bekki, Pearl, & Bugs....kept her on her toes!
Declining health placed her in the Downs Nursing Home (so she could be closer for Dalene to visit) in January 2020. She was able to continue to touch lives of several she had mentored through the years.
Betty Jo was preceded in death by: her parents; husband, Dale A.; eldest daughter, Rebecca Louise; sisters, Vivian McAuley, Anita Rieke (and husband, Willard); brother, George Houdek (and wife, Dorothy); & nephew, Terry Rieke.
She is survived by: daughters, Joyce Pearl Wiskur of Harrisonville, MO, & Dalene A. Banks of Downs; grandchildren, Sarah Jo (Wiskur) Cook & friend, Greg & Wesley Dale (Michelle) Wiskur; as well as 2 great-grandchildren, Keaton A. Cook & Waylon Dale Wiskur; sister-in-law, Lois (Banks) McElroy; nieces, Charla (Jon) Bannett & Susan (Ronald) Moxham; close family friend, Rhonda (Roy) Atwood & various cousins & other relatives. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to Parkview Care Center & Solomon Valley Hospice.
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