Theresa Elizabeth Ruth (Betty) Devish was born May 22, 1923. She was the sixth child of George and Theresa (Salzmann) Kenzy. She was born at the farm home near Iona, SD. Her brothers were Sam, Carl, Paul, Leo, and John. She attended school in the community, starting at Iona High School and later graduating from Gregory High School in 1940. She became a certified teacher attending Springfield Teachers College. Elizabeth Kenzy taught at the McKinley School near Iona in 1943. She lived with her parents behind the school, and would get there first to light the wood and coal burning stove.
On August 25, 1950, she married Floyd Devish. To this union joined a son ,Mark and a daughter, Mariann. In 1959, Betty cared for her parents in Gregory. Floyd owned the dry cleaners in Gregory until 1962. “Moving west”, they made their home in Winner, SD, where Floyd ran the Pheasant Cleaners, and then Modern Cleaners. Betty taught second grade and later Title teaching at West Side Elementary. She spent summers attending USD inVermillion, SD, and then received her Masters in Education. She was a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, and later she was the treasurer for the retired Winner Teachers group in which Arvis Simkins and she managed together. When Floyd passed away in 1978 at the age of 52, she continued to teach until 1991.
She enjoyed traveling to Sioux Falls to help with her grandchildren Michael and Nichole Devish. They loved grandma’s mashed potatoes and pies! In 2002, along with her brother Paul from Idaho, Betty moved to Oacoma and Chamberlain, SD, to help with raising her grandsons, Matthew and Marc Schwenk. They too loved grandma’s cooking! She to kept her home in Winner, traveling back and forth. Along with her friends and sister-in-laws, she would travel near and far; Betty never meant a stranger. She was also an avid reader, and enjoyed ordering many books,music tapes, and videos from Reader’s Digest! In her earlier years, she loved to dance. She was a very kind and gentle soul, loved by her family, friends, cats, especially Shadow and many former students.
Betty continued to live to the present with her daughter and grandsons in Chamberlain, SD. Her health had declined previously at home, and continued to decline during a short respite care stay at the Aurora-Brule Nursing Home in White Lake, SD, upon her death on October 29, 2016. She had entered hospice care earlier in October.
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