Betty J Henson

Graveside services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 27, 2010 in Antioch Cemetery, near Westervelt, IL. Family and friends will gather at Howe and Yockey Funeral Home, Shelbyville at 1:00 p.m. Saturday before going to the cemetery. Memorials may be given to the Shelby Humane Society.

Betty was born on May 27, 1927 in Brownstown, Illinois the daughter of Melvin and Elsie Bodine Harris. After her mother’s death in 1927, Betty lived with her grandmother, Hannah Bodine of Strasburg, IL for two years until her grandmother’s death. Betty then joined her brothers, Danny and Forrest, and they were raised by their uncle and aunt, Eli and Martha Bodine Skidmore of Westervelt, IL along with their daughter, Eva Skidmore. Betty graduated from Westervelt High School in 1946. She was a cleaning lady at the Anna B. Millikin Home in Decatur and later for Grant Hospital in Chicago. She was married to Percy Henson briefly in 1955. Betty had no children, but loved her two cats, Tiger and Lilly. Betty was proud that she sang in the Five Thousand Voice Choir at Billy Graham’s Heart of America Crusade that took place in 1967 in Kansas City, MO. She also treasured her chance meeting with Hank Williams, Sr. at a record store in 1949 in Peoria, IL, where she had stopped to check on the concert time for Hank’s concert that she was going to attend.

Surviving are her sisters, Beulah Lampe of Tremont, IL and Ruby Zick of Pekin, IL; brother-in-law, Robert Johnson of Shelbyville; many nieces and nephews including, Roberta Johnson of Shelbyville, Joan Foster and husband Keith of Wabash, IN, Lynda Johnson of Effingham and Willie Johnson of Findlay and fiancée Karen Voyles; many great nieces and nephews including, Amanda Foster of Washington, DC and Austin Foster of Muncie, IN; and great great twin nieces, Shae and Bryn of Indianapolis, IN.

She was preceded in death by her brothers, Danny and Forrest Harris; and sisters, Ethel Colbert and Eva Skidmore Johnson.