Betty Shipan

Betty Lou Barbara Shipan died peacefully in her sleep on Friday, September 29 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Betty was born on August 26, 1931. She grew up on the north side of Chicago, where she lived in an apartment with her parents, Harry and Susan Schmidt; older brother, Bud; and her uncle, Ritchie, whom she adored – not least because he often took her to baseball games, roller derby, and wrestling matches.

While attending Amundsen High School, Betty met a group of friends that she formed close bonds with and stayed in touch with for decades. This group – including Vesta, Vera, Roberta, Jean, Eleanor, Mabel, and Lillian, as well as Betty – continued getting together regularly throughout their adult lives, both in small groups and for larger parties. “Club,” as they referred to it, was a wonderful part of their lives, demonstrating the deep friendships that they made and showing how such close ties enriched all their lives.

After graduating from Amundsen, Betty took her first job as an office manager for the Johnson Brothers company. Her father was protective enough of her that he insisted that she work at a desk by the front window, so he could drive by every day and see that she was fine. The Johnsons happily met this condition, and grew to both value her as an employee and even to see her as a part of their family – something that people who met her throughout her life can relate to. Betty later held other jobs, such as bookkeeping, a stint working in retail, and a period of several years where she worked as a seamstress and dresser at the Shubert Theater in downtown Chicago, where she got to meet countless Broadways stars who came through town. (Debbie Reynolds was a favorite). Then in the 1970s Betty found a job that she continued to hold until she retired some twenty-five years later: she became the lunch lady, first at Haugan Elementary School and then later at Portage Park Elementary School. She loved working with students in this role as much as they loved working with her.

While growing up and into adulthood, Betty excelled at the arts. She was a terrific pianist. And she was an exceptional singer, possessing a glorious soprano voice. Her love of music, combined with earlier skills in gymnastics, led to something else that would become a lifelong passion: dancing. In fact, it was through attending dance clubs throughout Chicago that she met her future husband, Charlie. Both before and after they were married, they regularly went out dancing, making a set of friends whom they’d often get together with on the weekends, going downtown to dance. And they were good – really good! In fact, at one point, they won a Chicago-wide dance competition, and were featured on the front page of the newspaper for their success.

Betty and Charlie had two children – Mary, born in 1955, and Chuck, born in 1961 – of whom she was intensely proud. The four of them lived in an apartment in Albany Park until 1979, when they bought a house – a longtime dream of hers – in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. And then grandchildren came onto the scene – Jason, born in 1984; Jonathan, born in 1988; Jeffrey, born in 1992; and Rebecca, born in 1995 (whom Betty kept thinking would be called Jessica, following the “J” theme). She loved these grandchildren dearly. She enjoyed playing cards, or any games for that matter, and would, to their delight, play endlessly. She took them on vacations. She regularly watched Jason and Jonathan when they were young, and loved having visits from Jeffrey and Becca or visiting them at their home. And then she lived long enough to see two great-grandchildren brought into the world when Jeff and his wife Becky had first Cora and then Kylie. She loved getting photos of these great-grandkids, and would show them off to the caregivers at Central Baptist Village. She always vowed that she was going to make it out to see these great-grandkids one day, and while she was never able to do that, through the miracles of modern technology she was able to FaceTime with them, including one memorable time when she, Cora, and Chuck sang a rousing version of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” together.

As if this wasn’t a full enough life, Betty was a devoted aunt – Auntie B – to Linda, Cindy, Donna, Gretchen, and Heidi. She enjoyed cake decorating, gardening, calligraphy, and crafts. She loved dogs, especially Pal, a wonderful Boston Terrier she had while growing up, and Pal, another wonderful Boston Terrier she had when her own kids were growing up. And she loved later dogs – especially Triscuit and Wiggles, who were her companions for years.

Later in life Betty found a new passion: volunteering. She had always volunteered at her kids’ schools, being involved with the Parent-Teachers Association at Haugan, keeping score at the Father’s Club softball games, and so on. But then once she retired she jumped into even more volunteering with great enthusiasm. She started working with senior groups at local banks, where this self-styled very shy person ended up being in charge of bus trips that the groups took around the Chicago area, where she would lead songs, games, and other activities during the bus rides. One day when walking home from the grocery story she saw that a new café was opening, something called Mather. She went in, discovered it was a place for senior citizens to gather, do activities, eat meals, and more. She quickly became a fixture there, working at the front desk to greet people, provide information, and help plan activities. While she loved working at Mather and for the senior clubs at banks, one other activity was dearest to her heart. Her close friend, Ann, had formed a musical theater company called Rising Stars. Betty got involved in a number of ways, including helping with publicity, organizing and running all the ticket sales, and once even appearing on stage in one of the productions, as a singing nun in their production of Nunsense. For all of her volunteer activities, in the early 2000s Betty was rightly recognized by the city of Chicago and received an award from Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Through more than nine decades, Betty lived a rewarding life, filled with friends and family who loved her deeply and whom she loved in return. She touched countless lives, whether through her music, her dancing, her work, her volunteering, her sense of humor, or being willing as grandma to play yet another game or sing another song. She has enriched all of our lives in countless ways, and we will miss her every day.

A celebration of Betty's life will be held at Central Baptist Village in Norridge on Monday, November 6, from 12:30pm-1:30pm. In lieu of sending flowers, please consider a donation to the Alzheimers Foundation of America.