Betty Jane (Lovelace) Bowers

Born March 29, 1938, in the tiny town of Pineville, Arkansas, Betty Jane (Lovelace) Bowers was the eldest of four children who would be born to Doyle and Ruby Lovelace. Her parents soon moved the family to Anderson, Indiana. They ultimately found and purchased an old red brick country schoolhouse, turning it into a home that has served the family well and seen four generations come beneath its roof. Betty graduated as class valedictorian from Highland High School in 1956 and then spent a year at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Later, while working as a secretary at an insurance office, she met Stirling Bowers, a young Navy Hospital Corpsman stationed at Naval Hospital Great Lakes, Illinois, who began making frequent trips by car to spend time with her. On September 27, 1958, they were married, and in September 1960, the first of two sons was born in Anderson. Soon, Betty’s husband left the Navy and joined the Air Force, which transferred the family to a small base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Far from family and friends, Betty became a strong and resourceful person, adapting to myriad challenges and becoming the highly adaptable, resilient, and determined woman she would be for the remainder of her life. Their second son was born in Alpena, Michigan in September 1964. 1968 saw the family at Sewart Air Force Base in Tennessee, and in 1970 they moved to George Air Force Base in Victorville, California, in the heart of the Mojave desert. Two lengthy separations for overseas duty, one to Vietnam, and another to the Philippines put a strain on the marriage, which lasted until 1974. Betty and her sons begin to put down deeper roots, remaining in the desert community for many years. Though juggling the duties of a single mom and working to support her children, Betty somehow found the time and stamina to earn her bachelor's degree, an elementary teaching credential, and ultimately a Master's degree in education. She taught in public schools for twenty years, worked as a substitute teacher after retirement, and finally invested herself in children one at a time as a tutor. Through her child-rearing years, she faithfully kept her family in church, sang in the choir, worked in the nursery, taught children’s classes, and even served as a teen leader. In the early 2000s, Betty moved back to Indiana to care for a family member through a health crisis and then chose to stay in Indiana for the remainder of her years, enjoying being a Hoosier once again. And so, it was from Indiana that the Lord called Betty home to Glory around sunrise on November 10, 2022-- in time to enjoy breakfast in Heaven with Jesus! Betty was preceded to Heaven by her parents, Doyle and Ruby Lovelace, her sister Arlene Tupps, and her nephew David Tupps. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Neil and Lynn Bowers, her son, Paul Bowers, her brother and sister-in-law, James and Kathleen Lovelace, her sister, Paula Burton, her brother-in-law and his wife, Jim and Phyllis Tupps, her nephews, Kevin Tupps and his wife, Stacy, and Chris Tupps and his wife, Aimee, by her nephew’s wife, Kim Tupps, and by her nephew, Rex Burton, her nephew Evan Lovelace and his wife Laura, her nephew Eric Lovelace and his wife, April, her nephew James Lovelace, Junior, and his wife, Amy, her cousin Donna Allison and her husband, Gary, and her cousin Sharlet Ellsworth and her husband, Steve, as well as by four granddaughters, one grandson, and three great–grandchildren.