The Life and Legacy of Bette Fitts
by Joel Fitts, January 2009
Bette Fitts was born Elizabeth Paulina McKinnon in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 1918. Although she lived her entire life in the Scottsbluff area, her legacy and influence is felt across the United States. Bette was generous and practical, hard-working and fun-spirited, dutiful and loving. Known for her family gatherings and always being there for family and friends, Bette was the loving matriarch of the Fitts family.
Bette was an only-child and grew up on a farm outside of Scottsbluff in the Lake Alice community. There were so many Elizabeths in her class that her teacher asked each of them to be known as one of the different nicknames for Elizabeth. She chose Bette. She met William A. Fitts when she was in high school and they married on November 18, 1937 when she was 19. Bill and Bette lived on a farm east of Scottsbluff and started a family in 1940. They had their first son, Errol, in May 1940, and their second son, William Mac, in July 1943. The family of four lived in the same small house on that farm as the boys grew up and they were active in the Hillcrest farming community.
Bette often said that she raised “three boys” on that farm. The stories of the adventures and misadventures of Bill, Errol, and Billy Mac are still recounted at family gatherings. Her sons are the primary storytellers and, by their own admission, the stories get better and better each year. Bette sat next to them, smiling while they told their stories, and set the record straight when details strayed too far. The Fitts sense of humor ran strong through her husband, her sons, and now her grandchildren. In the midst of all of this, Bette proved that she could tell a joke and she could take a joke.
When her boys were in high school, Bette started the transition from working in the home and on the farm, to working in town. She started driving into Scottsbluff and worked as a telephone operator while her husband continued to farm. She would work for the phone company for 26 years and watched it transform from the manual system (with rows of women untangling wires) to the computerized system of today (with few if any people on the other end).
Both sons went to college to be teachers and both were married by 1965. Both also moved away to start teaching in other towns, one in Wyoming and the other in Iowa . But Bette was far from lonely since there were so many relatives who lived in the Scottsbluff area. Although she had married into it, she became an integral part of the Fitts family; her husband had a brother and two sisters, each of whom had children of their own.
Bette’s first grandchild was born in 1963 and more would follow. By 1972 Bette had five grandchildren, four boys and one girl. Having dealt with “three boys” on the farm, the preponderance of boys was not strange to her. And the situation allowed her granddaughter to take delight in introducing herself as Bette’s favorite granddaughter, which, of course, was true. In 2009, Bette had five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren living in Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas, and Georgia. And through Errol's second marriage, she had several step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren that she called her own.
However, most of her grand-children would not know her husband. In 1967, Bill Sr. fell ill with what was later believed to be Leukemia. He died in October of that year at the age of 52. Bill and Bette had been married for 30 years and had lived, loved, and parented together through the good and the bad. Widowed at the age of 49, Bette never remarried, but became the strong, independent woman that the family knew her as for so long.
In 1972, Bette’s youngest son, now known as Bill, moved his family back to Scottsbluff and started farming in the area. By this time, Bette had moved into town and had bought a house. With her son and two of her grandchildren so close again, Bette began the role so many knew her for: a close, loving grandmother. Her home became the meeting place, the rest stop, and the safe haven when local family was in town for the day. It was even the central place for family that already lived in town. And it certainly became the busy hub of activity when out-of-town family visited Scottsbluff.Bette hosted holidays and parties, baby-sat grandchildren, and gave out-of-town family a place to stay. And she loved every minute of it.
In 1982, Bette retired from the Telephone Company, but she kept busy ever since. Bette was very active in her church and in the community. For years she helped the church whenever it hosted an event and she volunteered at the hospital, working in the gift shop. Not to mention the support she provided to the family members of her generation, driving those who could no longer drive to run errands and to take them to social and family occasions. These were her husband’s brother and sister and their spouses, but no one would guess they were not blood-relatives when seeing how Bette watched over them and included them. With most of the children (and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) living elsewhere in the country, Bette was the undisputed center of the Fitts family as she cared for the core of it in Scottsbluff and kept tabs on every part of it wherever it may be.
In 2001, Bette moved into an apartment in a retirement community called The Village. Bette knew most of the people there from the community and had several good friends as neighbors. She eventually integrated into her new social scene and enjoyed herself as she became a popular resident of The Village. In the following years she gradually gave up her self-appointed duty as an errand runner for the family and started asking to be taken places herself. There were the occasional trips to Kmart to pick up a single nail file; a trip she requested and her son granted, both with a knowing twinkle in their eyes, as she was being repaid for all the similar trips she had given the other members of her generation.
By 2007, Bette was the last member of her generation in the Fitts family. Loving matriarch to five generations of the family, she continued to care for those around her and follow the lives of those who were far away. Having seen the Fitts family through most of the Twentieth Century, she had continued to do so into the Twenty First.
Bette celebrated her 90th birthday in Scottsbluff on July 5, 2008 , with family from all over the country around her. After spending a happy Christmas 2008 with Scottsbluff-based family, Bette passed away suddenly on January 12, 2009 . She was loved by the entire family and was a special woman to everyone who knew her. Every member of the now far-flung Fitts family will always keep her in their hearts as the center of the family and the last great connection to our shared family home of Scottsbluff.