Betty Louise Owen was born Thursday, April 17, 1919 in Meadville, Pennsylvania .
she died Monday, January 25, 2010. her recorded age was 90.
OWEN Betty Louise Owen, 90, of Worthington, died Monday, January 25, 2010 at Village of Westerville Retirement Center. Daughter of the late William VanBrocklin and Louise Katherine Werle Owen, she was born in Meadville, PA on April 17, 1919 and moved to Columbus, OH at an early age. She volunteered two days after Pearl Harbor, World War II, as a civilian and was sent to the U.S. Navy Department, Washington, D.C. The next year she was asked to go to New York City to aid in setting up the U.S. Navy Training Film Distribution Unit at Deluxe Laboratories, 20th Century Fox. Eventually an additional floor was built to house Army, Navy and Marine Corps Training Film units, which made films to educate and entertain the troops here and abroad. She returned to Columbus after five years with the Navy. She was employed as a cost accountant at Sterling Paper Co. She became the only paid employee at the Council of Retarded Children and worked to get a levy passed for government funding such as it is today. She was on the staff of Professional Publications, publishers of Ceramics Monthly and Ohio Boating magazines, before joining the former TB Society of Columbus and Franklin County as administrative assistant. For 20 years she and her sister, the late Jane Lane, operated Lane's Coach House in Worthington. After retirement she enjoyed and was active in TWIG 50 of Children's Hospital and had a great interest in genealogy and Dutch relatives in New York City in the 1600s. She is survived by brothers, William VanBrocklin (Eileen) Owen Jr. of Indianapolis, IN, Richard Stuart Owen of Pomeroy, OH and Edgar James "Jim" (Phyllis) Owen of Upper Arlington; nieces and nephews, Ann Elizabeth Owen North, James David (Sue Ann) Owen, Susan Jane Owen Outka, Jennifer Louise Owen, Judith Ann Owen (Ron) Baird, Richard Stuart "Dick" (Jeannie) Owen II and David Stuart Owen; great-nieces and great-nephews, Mark Edward and David Michael North, David Nathan Owen, Bonnie Sarah (Ben) Owen-Zeff, Jacqueline Elliott Outka, Jonathan Richard, William Michael and Rebecca Rhojean Owen, and John Owen Baird; brother-in-law, Daniel R. Lane of Powell. In addiiton to her parents, she was preceded in death by a sister Margaret Jane Owen Lane on May 5, 2003 and sisters-in-law Jackie Owen and Sara Daune Owen. At her request, a private service will be held in Walnut Grove Cemetery with her nephew, the Rev. Ronald L. Baird of St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Lewis Center, officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) Foundation, 1810 MacKenzie Drive, Columbus, OH 43220 in memory of her sister Jane, or to TWIG 50, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH. Arrangements by WEIR-AREND FUNERAL HOME, 268-3593.