BETTY ROSS

Elizabeth A. (Betty) Ross, 80, of Iola, died Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007 at Windsor Place Nursing Center in Iola.

She was born Sept. 6, 1927 at Piqua, Kan., to John Herman and Dorthea "Dora" Mary (Frischenmeyer) Sicka.

She learned to grow up quickly at the age of 11 when her father died in 1938. Betty quit school after the eighth grade and went to work. She went to work for her aunt and uncle, Frank and Frances Lampe, for 25 cents a day. She did a lot of babysitting and also worked for a cousin, Lawrence Sicka, north of Yates Center, riding a bus over there on Monday and not coming back until Friday.

Betty and her mother moved to Iola in 1948 where Betty worked at the Hawley Honey Factory and then at the White Grill Restaurant for $27 a week.

On Oct. 17, 1950, she married Darrell Don Ross. They made their home in Iola until moving to a farm southeast of Iola in 1954.

She was a member of St. John's Catholic Church and altar society in Iola.

Survivors include husband Darrell Ross, of the home; four sons, Larry Ross and wife, Peggy, Moran, Don Ross and wife, Charleen, Topeka, John Ross and wife, Mary, Iola, and Charles Ross and wife, Kathy, Humboldt; three daughters, Sharon Engeman and husband, Ted, Clarksville, Tenn., Jean Ross, Humboldt, and Joan Ross, Pittsburg; 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A grandson, Brian Hegwald, three sisters, Helen Smith, Frances Hoag and Violet Jones, and two brothers, Jack and Paul Sicka, have preceded her in death.

Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 at the Waugh-Yokum and Friskel Chapel in Iola.

The parish rosary will be recited at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007, followed by the mass at 10 a.m., both at St. John's Catholic Church in Iola. Burial will follow at St. Martin's Catholic Cemetery in Piqua, Kan.

Memorials are suggested to St. Martin's Cemetery Fund and may be left at the Waugh-Yokum and Friskel Memorial Chapel in Iola which is in charge of the arrangements.