Betty LaRouche

Betty LaRouche died peacefully June 2, 2012. Born Betty Nicola, September 25, 1922. The youngest of 6 children to Gerrit and Ida Nicola, Betty survived the last 89 years with 6 errors on her birth certificate, as the local Dr. who delivered her at home made his visit to the courthouse to file the births in Bellaire but once a month in those days, and had to depend upon his memory and scraps of notes for many of the birth details. Born at the family farm home between Eastport and Atwood on what is now US 31 Betty was witness to the family home burning when she was only three. The entire family survived, but life was tough for this depression era family in all respects. While their Dad (Gerrit) often times could only find employment outside the area, the kids when not in school had to work for the neighbors weeding gardens to help supplement the family income. On winter nights the family many times played cards after sorting a 100 lb. sack of dry beans by kerosene lantern. Betty along with her older sisters Sadie (Brooks), Hattie (Arnold), Ida (Richardson), and brothers Bill Nicola (Marion), Art Nicola (Mary), and Gerrit Nicola (Iva) were educated in the one room school know as the Maple Hill School, which is now occupied by Smith/Scott family. Betty, born in an era which didn't always give girls a chance to get the education they wanted never got a chance to attend high school, through no fault of her own. It was something she always regretted. At 16, denied the schooling she would have wanted, Betty decided farm life wasn't for her and moved to the Flint area with a girl friend and waited tables in the Hilltop Tea Room. She eventually moved to the Detroit area during WWII and learned typing and secretarial skills through a government program of the day. In 1946 she married Louis LaRouche formerly of Bay City. They raised one child; Richard who was born in 1950. Betty reentered the labor market in 1966 working for the Wayne Oakland Bank, where her husband Louis was an internal bank auditor. Betty and Louis retired in 1968 after purchasing a home with acreage in Betty's home area of Eastport. In 1972 after the graduation from college of their son, Betty and Louis divorced and she moved to Charlevoix where she worked for the Charlevoix State Bank for over two decades, eventually becoming Vice President. She retired in 1986 and moved to Gaylord in 2001 to help supervise the raising of her grand children Elizabeth and Stephanie LaRouche. Though in her later years she was afflicted with dementia, Betty was a wonderful and caring mother and grandmother and she will be missed forever by all those who knew her. Betty is survived by her Son Richard LaRouche , his wife Mary Ann, granddaughters Elizabeth and Stephanie and by her only living sibling Sadie Brooks who is 93 yrs old and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, June 5, at One p.m. at the Central Lake Chapel of Mortensen Funeral Homes with Pastor Jerry Troyer officiating. Interment will follow in Lakeview Cemetery, Eastport. The family will receive friends Tuesday from Noon until the time of service. Memorial donations may be directed to the Otsego County Commission on Aging, 120 Grandview Blvd, Gaylord, MI 49735. Please sign her online guestbook www.mortensenfuneralhomes.com.