Betty would never believe there could be a story about her life. “Ack,” she would say. “What would that be about?” Her disbelief would be punctuated by a dismissive wave of her hand, with her German heritage and Wisconsin lifetime apparent in every syllable. Typical of the Depression-era generation, Betty wasn’t much for story-telling about herself. She would make you a quilt, cook you a meal, be your friend. But talk about herself and her life? Not Betty.
Yet, here’s her story. Because it is a story worth telling.
Elizabeth (Bade) Kraemer Werbeckes was born July 23, 1920 to Frank and Louise (Kruger) Bade. She was raised in a household with sisters Evelyn and Lois, and her brother, Frank. Another sister, Alva, died in infancy. The family lived initially in Elkhart Lake but moved to Plymouth when Betty was very young. She attended Plymouth schools and graduated from Plymouth High School.
Her first work out of high school was as a live-in housekeeper in Sheboygan. She later got a job with Lakeshire Cheese Factory (later known as Borden’s) in Plymouth.
She married Roland Kraemer at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Plymouth on March 2, 1946, and they took over the Kraemer family farmstead on Highway W in rural Cascade where they farmed for almost 30 years. They had four children: Karen (John) Ruder, of Vancouver, Canada; Diane (Allen) Neumann of Random Lake; Janet (Dale) Fitzsimons of Fennimore; and Roland Kraemer Jr. of Cascade.
Betty was a small-town girl and had to learn the farm life as she moved to the country as a new bride. She took to it easily and with obvious pride. She did daily chores with milking cows, feeding pigs and calves. She became especially adept at the fragile art of raising chickens (and the less fragile art of later butchering, cooking and serving them for dinner), in addition to gathering, cleaning and sizing eggs, which "The Egg Lady" truck came to collect once per week. She cooked and baked. She canned and jarred garden produce, and filled the potato cellar. She helped tap the maple trees for sap and then cooked it down to syrup. She made lye soap from the fat from butchering. She helped make wood for the furnace.
She never missed a Little League baseball game or a high school football game if her son was involved. And she enjoyed watching all of her children in 4-H, showing their Guernsey dairy cattle at the County Fair and State Fair. Betty also was a 4-H leader in sewing. And from as early as anyone can recall, she was an expert quilter.
She nurtured her children's interest in animals, music and other hobbies. A common theme in stories about Betty is a certain quiet vigilance she exhibited. She would sit outside and listen to the children practice piano through an open window, but without them knowing she was listening. She would see an injustice and quietly correct it, once calling a son-in-law to the refuge of the house after he was overmatched in some volunteer farmfield work. Betty then chastised other family members for being so hard on him.
As with many families, holidays were a big deal. Lots of planning and lots of work went into big, traditional meals, and joyful gatherings of the entire family. Holiday gatherings were sometimes at Betty's home and more often at the home of her in-laws, Henry and Alma Kraemer, who lived just up the road.
Gatherings during the football season had an extra layer of planning -- they had to be scheduled around Green Bay Packers games. In the early days of TV, it was a grainy, small black-and-white TV that was center to the party. The family included plenty of hard-core fans who knew all the players and followed every second and every play. Betty didn't know many of the players, and probably didn’t understand many of the plays. But she so enjoyed just being part of the atmosphere, laughing and cheering in the good moments, sighing as she did when things didn't go as well, always being in the moment, especially with family. It was the same with Brewer games and stock car racing - she followed and enjoyed what her family followed and enjoyed, so she could join in the conversation and be part of what was most important in their lives.
Her husband, Roland, died on July 31, 1975. His sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack changed things significantly. Betty's life as an everyday farm wife was over, as the farm was rented out and then later sold into the next generation of family.
Betty eventually went back to work, finding jobs at Lensmire cheese factory, Larsen’s canning factory and White Clover Dairy. She poured herself more fully into her hobbies and volunteerism. She played cards weekly at the senior center in Beechwood. She belonged to the St. John’s United Church of Christ in Beechwood where she held office in the Women's Guild for many years, and sang in the church choir. She enjoyed walks around the farm, sometimes gathering hickory nuts from the fence lines. She was a master at caning chairs, and also got more interested in putting together puzzles, a hobby that would consume vast hours of her free time until very late in life when her failing eyesight made it too difficult.
She also devoted unimaginable hours to quilting. For all Betty's varied skills, the one most likely to make friends and strangers alike simply say "wow" was her talent for making beautiful, high-quality quilts. From sewing the quilt blocks, to the tight, perfectly spaced stitches, her quilts have always been truly a work of art. She could do them fast, too, and combined with tireless work ethic, it means there are quilts in every closet, linen chest and guest bedroom in the family. Many, many of them. Of course, she never fully accepted just what an expert she was at her craft. She was offended at the prices charged for quilts in craft stores and scoffed at the suggestion that her quilts had such value. We all know they did.
On August 17, 1985, Betty married Albert Werbeckes, a neighbor who also had farmed along Highway W. They built a new house together, just up the hill from the farmstead where Betty had lived most of her adult life. They planted a large garden to harvest, and they took several trips together, including to Hawaii and Alaska. Their new house was kept immaculately clean, and Betty incorporated many of Albert's wood-working projects into the décor for the house. There was room aplenty for hosting and for enjoying everyday life. Bird watching became another fascination, as feeders and the vista atop the hill were great for attracting and witnessing many species.
Albert died in June of 1989. Betty stayed in the house and was comfortable there for many years. She was lonely at times, but was quick to pick up the phone to have a conversation with family or friends. She enjoyed trips to Fennimore and to Vancouver, Canada where she would take extended stays to help her children's families - always cooking, quilting, being helpful. As grandkids grew to college age, Betty was famous for care packages of chocolate chip cookies. And nothing she made in the kitchen is more memorable than her famous coffee cake. Even with the recipe, no one else has ever been able to quite duplicate it.
Visits or phone calls from any of her six grandchildren - and later from great-grandchildren - were certain to bring a smile to Betty's face. As any of those kids would tell a story, sing a song or show something to Grandma, she would so often laugh, and then give a little one-clap exclamation of joy with a "how about that" or some other expression of congratulations and encouragement. Her laughs would often end in her unique sigh of contentment. The grandchildren remember some of her sayings when they were in trouble, too. "You little stinker," she liked to tease to the troublemakers. And, with a bit of German language influence, her warning that "you dasn't do that."
The pains of arthritis and the struggles of poor eyesight made staying in her home increasingly difficult for Betty. With a lot of help from family and neighbors, she stuck with it for as long as she could before finally making the move to the Beechwood Rest Home in 2011. She enjoyed the staff there and continued to do what she could, while she could.
A few of Betty’s friends and family collaborated to write this story as she was in declining health at the Beechwood Rest Home, and not able to relate her own story anymore. We did our best to include relevant facts and enough color and context to be true to Betty's life story. Some important things may have been forgotten, or perhaps we got something wrong. Other details surely could have been included, and all of you reading may have had other perspectives to share. It's not perfect, but we did the best we could. As you read this some time after it was written, it’s even possible that important joys or sorrows not included here have transpired in the meantime.
We apologize if it’s not complete. Betty would never have left a stitch unsewn.
