Beatrice A Theel

Beatrice A. Theel
March 13, 1936 – August 2, 2025

Visitation begins Sunday, August 10, 2025, 3:00 pm with a Wake Service at 4:00 pm all at West Center Chapel.

Mass of Christian Burial, Monday, August 11, 2025 10:30am at St. Columbkille Catholic Church, 200 East 6th Street, Papillion, NE.

The family requests that guests wear golf attire to help celebrate Betty’s life and love for golf.

Interment, Resurrection Cemetery.

To view a live broadcast of the services, please visit www.heafeyheafey.com and click on the “Live Cast” button at the top of the home page.

Beatrice “Betty” A. Theel, 89, passed away peacefully in the arms of her loving husband Gene on Saturday August 2, 2025, in their home in La Vista, Nebraska.

Betty was born on March 13, 1936, to Bernard and Dora Jarding in Emery, South Dakota. Her family moved to Canistota South Dakota when she was in elementary school. She loved to tell us stories of how this cute black-haired boy caught her eye when he started school in her sophomore year. They started dating during her junior year. The following summer her parents moved to Eugene, Oregon and Betty convinced them to let her stay with her sister Nona and husband Orvil so she could finish her senior year in Canistota.

After graduating in 1954 she joined her parents in Eugene, where she got a job with the Northwestern Bell telephone company. In January of 1956 she put in for a transfer to Nortwestern Bell in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so she could marry her high school sweetheart. On May 21, 1956, she married Gene Theel in Bridgewater, South Dakota.

Their 1st son Mark was born in 1957, and she quit her job to stay home and care for him. Their daughter Marjorie was born in 1958, followed by their son Todd in 1959, son Thomas in 1964, and son Adam in 1973.

Betty embraced her role as a loving homemaker and she kept very busy caring for the kids, their school activities, Dr. appointments and going to ball games, especially with four boys playing baseball and Marge playing softball.

She enjoyed bowling, golf, camping, and family vacations to Canada, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Oregon, California, and Montana. She loved spending the winters in Arizona, playing a lot of golf, until dementia made it difficult to travel.

In 2013 Betty was diagnosed with dementia. She and Gene sold their Arizona home in 2018. She began receiving home health care in 2022 a couple days a week. In January of 2023 she broke her shoulder, increasing her home care to 7 days a week.

There have been many different caregivers over the past 3 years, and we would like to recognize 4 regulars Jenna, Darlene, Nancy, and Ashley. These 4 all treated Betty like she was their mother or grandmother. She knew them all well, she would always welcome them with a big smile, ask them questions, straighten their blouses, and give them big hugs.

On Saturday afternoon August 2nd, she was lying in bed napping and after a while she just stopped breathing, Gene was sitting by her side with their daughter Marge when she went very peacefully.

Betty was preceded in death by her father, Bernard; mother, Dora; son, Todd; sisters: Margaret Traweek, Nona Lambertz, Lorena Bartling, and Rosemary Boom; brothers: Vincent Jarding, Alfred Jarding, and Richard Jarding; granddaughter-in-law, Christine Boye. She is survived by her husband, Gene; son, Mark and his wife, Karen; daughter, Marge; daughter in-law, Jan; son, Tom and his wife, Melissa; son, Adam; grandchildren: Jennifer, Eric, Patricia, Bobby, Nicholas, Alexzandria, Brian, Luz, Paul, Erika, Taran, Rachel, Maggie, Bailey, Eva; 17 great-grandchildren.

Betty loved her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

“You will be missed and always will be the love of my life!!!”
-Gene-

Beloved Betty

When I was young
I knew just 2 Bettys
One fictitious one­
Married to Barney
One quite genuine one­
Married to Gene.
I loved the latter better
Because she loved my mom
And showed love of family­
Her family, and ours
Hard to fathom someone
Changing 35,000 diapers, lifetime,
Including many of mine.
Nine children in two families
With one amazing Betty at the helm,
Cooking, cleaning, planning,
Organizing rides. trips, events,
Once in awhile, having time for fun:
Cookouts, picnics, lakes and boating,
Golf and bowling.
But what I recall most about Betty
Was her infectious laugh…
One had to seek more time with that.
And we shant forget her cooking
Especially each giant Thanksgiving feast
With the best-tasting servings
Ever to pass my lips.
I would often think how lucky her kids were
If able to dine like that every day.
And how appropriate it is now
To close this poem in Thanks.
Thankful for Betty.
Thankful for Gene and the Theel family.
Thankful for friendship and laughter.
Incredible memories of mutual love,
Respect, Care for one another.
Common bonds free of politics
And judgement, but full of Pride
In building Strong Family Ties.

~ R. Dutton

Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak-Cutler, West Center Chapel, 7805 West Center Road, Omaha, Ne 68124. (402)-391-3900. www.heafeyheafey.com