Betty J. Galen

October 29, 1930 – April 7, 2020

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Betty Jean (Oehmke) Galen passed away April 7, 2020, at the age of 89. Her memorial service will be Sunday, Aug 15, at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Seward. A reception will follow in the St. John’s Fellowship Hall.

Betty was born in Fraser, Michigan, in 1930, the third of six children of Gus and Catherine (Lardner) Oehmke. She is survived by two siblings, sister, Joyce, and her husband Jerry Cornelissen in West Lafayette, Indiana, and her brother, Dave, and his wife Julie Oehmke in Brentwood, Tennessee. Her brother, Don Oehmke, died in 2011; her brother, Jerry Oehmke, and his wife, Bea, both died in 2020; and an infant brother, Richard Oehmke, died shortly after his birth.

Betty was a 1948 graduate of Fraser High School, and graduated from Concordia College in River Forest, IL, in 1959. She married William Galen in 1961 after they met in a church choir in the Chicago area. Following the wedding, they moved to Seward where Bill took a position as professor of vocal music at Concordia College. Betty and Bill had two children, Christopher Galen, and his wife, Adele Logan-Galen, who with their children Grace and Gavin Galen live in Annandale, Virginia; and Luke Galen of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his fiancée, Celeste Ehrenberg, of Omaha. Her husband, Bill, passed away in 1994.

Condolences may be left for the family online at www.volzkefuneralhome.com.