BETTY ALUMBAUGH

NEGAUNEE, Mich.- Services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Konantz Warden Funeral Home in Lamar, Mo., for Betty Deane (Gruver) Alumbaugh, 90, Negaunee, who died Thursday, March 1, 2018. Burial will be in Lake Cemetery in Lamar, Mo.

Visitation will be held prior to the service, beginning at 1 p.m.

The obituary may be viewed and condolences sent online at www.konantzwarden.com.

Survivors include her grandson, Jason Alumbaugh and wife Jana and a great-granddaughter, Janelle. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl, on Sept. 23, 1993; daughter, Karen, on June 13, 2015; son, Randall, on Nov. 4, 1977; brothers, Donnie and Wayne; stepbrother, Earl and stepsister, Marie.

Mrs. Alumbaugh was born Jan. 13, 1928, in Pittsburg, Kan., to Ralph Ivan and Lavon Jewel (Scott) Gruver. They lived in Pittsburg, Kan., for two years before moving to a farm near Nashville, Mo. At around age seven her family moved to Lamar, Mo., where she attended a one room school north of town. She moved to Detroit and that’s where she married Carl Alumbaugh on Aug. 8, 1948. In the early 1950’s, they moved to Kansas City, Mo. She was employed as a telephone operator and secretary at Bell Telephone, Air Force Base Company and US Air Force, retiring in 1983.

While in Kansas City she was a member and attended the United Methodist Church of Ruskin Heights, S. Kansas City. In 2002 she moved to Henning to be with her daughter and son-in-law. In the summer of 2015, after the death of her daughter and caretaker Karen, she moved to a nursing home in Michigan to be near her grandson and his family.

She enjoyed meeting with friends to drink coffee, visit and play cards. She also enjoyed drawing, painting and writing poetry.