Janssen, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Janssen, 86, died Thursday, May 30, 2013, at Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center following a brief illness. Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Monday, June 3, at Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello, with interment in the Hopkinton Cemetery. Pastor Jamey Stout will officiate at the services. Friends may call from 3 until 7 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.

Surviving are 10 children, Sharon Davis, Ron (Kate) Ehlts, Janis (Melvin) Dirks, Dennis (Pam) Ehlts, Rick (Jane) Ehlts, Regina (Jim) Vrooman, Betty (Loras) Hoeger, Dale Ehlts, Karen (Dennis) Tuel and Tom (Becky) Ehlts; 26 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; and her siblings, Stuart Smith, Leandra Hessing and Patricia Sackett.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husbands, Jack Curtis and Arthur Janssen; two sons, Paul and Robert; a grandson, Jacob Hoeger; a brother, Paul Smith; and a sister, Virginia Tucker.

Elizabeth Ann Smith was born March 22, 1927, in Monticello, Iowa, the daughter of Charles and Norma (Espy) Smith. She graduated from Monticello Community Schools with the class of 1946. She married Fred Ehlts in 1946 and together they had 12 children. They later divorced. Betty married Jack Curtis on July 17, 1975. The couple lived in Dubuque and Hopkinton. He preceded her in death on Oct. 14, 1993. Betty married Arthur Janssen on Aug. 28, 1997, at St. Luke's Catholic Church, Hopkinton. The couple lived in Anamosa. Art died May 20, 2006.

Besides raising her family, Betty was a hairdresser for 34 years. She sold real estate in Dubuque from 1973 until 1975. She took art classes for two years in Dubuque. She attended Clown Camp in March 1994 and was Relda the Clown. At the age of 79 in 2006, she published her first book, “Beth and the Serial Killer,” and then published “Soft Hands for Murder”in 2010.

Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com.

Memorials may be made to Camp Courageous of Iowa or Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Published June 1, 2013 in The Gazette