Betty Jo Martens

Graveside services for Betty Jo Martens will be 11:00 a.m. Monday, December 30, 2013, at the Waynoka Municipal Cemetery with Scoop Fischer officiating. Interment is under the direction of Marshall Funeral Home of Waynoka, LLC. Betty Jo Martens wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, passed from this life on Friday, December 27, 2013, in Lubbock, Texas. Betty was born October 2, 1924, to Reba Beatrice Allen Sloan and William Leslie Sloan in Lamesa, Texas, the oldest of four children. She graduated from Amarillo High School in 1943. Immediately after graduating high school, Betty went to work for the Santa Fe Railroad as a teletype operator. In October 1945, Betty met Henry F. (Hank) Martens from Elmont, New York, at the Paramount movie theater in Amarillo. Hank was still in the Army and assigned to recruiting duty in Amarillo. The recruiting office was closed on the weekend, so Hank took a part time job at the movie theater. Betty and a friend went to the movies every Sunday evening and it was there she met Hank. Betty’s friend was a smoker and when she left to go to the smoking lounge, Betty would talk to Hank. When he got off work, he would come down and sit with Betty for the rest of the show. One evening when he was working Hank got out a magazine and started writing figures on it, when Betty asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was figuring out how much he’d make if he got married. Betty always said that was as close to a proposal as she got. Betty married Hank on March 6, 1946 at the West Amarillo Christian Church, and they left for New York the next day. While in New York, Hank worked at Sperry Gyroscopes until October when he and Betty decided to return to Amarillo where he took a job in the engineering department of the Santa Fe Railroad. Hank worked for Santa Fe from 1946 until 1986. Betty devoted her entire life to being a wife, mother and friend. Karen Elaine Martens was born in December 1946 and seven years later in April 1953, Chris Martens was born. Her church and religion were an important part of Betty’s life and although the railroad required frequent moves she always found a church home. In every church, Betty was active in the women’s circle, volunteered to help in the office, and attended prayer groups. She was a member of the First Christian Church in Slaton, Texas. After moving to Lubbock, Texas, in 1971 she and Hank were founding members of the Raintree Christian Church. When her health began to fail one of Betty’s greatest disappointments was that she was no longer able to attend church. Betty never missed a school performance or activity for Karen or Chris. She was an avid sports fan. Her love of baseball began when she volunteered to be Chris’ first baseball coach when none of the dads could. That experience led to her being a rabid Cubs fan who rarely missed a game on TV. After he retired, she and Hank traveled to Arizona to see the Cubs in Spring Training. Although she was not an outdoors person, Betty loved nature. She especially enjoyed watching birds and she also loved to read. Betty was a rare example of and lived her life according to a passage that was close to her heart, Luke 12:48, “And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” She believed that God had blessed her with much and lived her life in a selfless and altruistic manner; always having a kind word ready for everyone she was with, giving to those in need, and never wanting to impose on anyone, even pre-planning her service and deciding that both she and Hank would be buried in Waynoka, as she said, “to make it easier on everyone.” Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Henry F. (Hank) Martens; sister, Bea Sloan; brothers, Leslie Sloan and Jim Sloan; her parents, Reba and W.L. Sloan; and two sons-in-law, David Ellis and Bruce Tanburg. She is survived by daughter, Karen and her husband, Jimmy Villa Lubbock, TX; son, Chris and his wife, Mert Fischer Martens, Ponca City, OK; grandson, Jeff Martens, his wife, Lindsey, and great grandsons, Aaron and Blake Martens, Ankeny, IA; and good friend, Scoop Fischer. Memorial contributions may be made through the funeral home to the American Diabetes Association.

Betty Jo Martens

October 2, 1924 - December 27, 2013