June 21, 1937 – August 27, 2022
Betty Jo Irene Grady was born on June 21, 1937 in Clarinda, Iowa to Kennard and Rose Goebel. The Goebel Family, including Betty and her two younger sisters, Wilma and Mary Rose, moved from Iowa to Kansas City, Missouri. Betty attended Manual High School, where she met her husband Charles E. Grady. They wed after her senior year in high school and were married for 55 years. Betty was a year older than Charles, and he often joked about how she signed his permission slips for school and how she attended Charles’s graduation in maternity clothes, expecting their first child. Charles predeceased Betty on May 18, 2011. Betty died peacefully on August 27, 2022, in Gilbert, Arizona.
Left to cherish her memory are her three children, Mark Grady (Sandra), Bev Moriarty (Ken) and Erin Alcaraz (Rick). Betty’s legacy included 7 grandchildren: Nickole Moriarty, Kathryn McTiernan, Desiree Odjick (Chad), Katie Evans (Jeff), Megan Brewer (Sean), Cearia White (Jeff), Mark Grady, Hailey Hershkowitz (Mitch) and Taylor Loomis (Tyler), and 13 great grandchildren: Ariel Kraeling (Brandon), Meghan and Caitlin McTiernan, Colin, Kali and Abbigail Odjick, Jack, Ben, and Lainey Evans, Josh and Hannah Brewer, Charles and Johnathen White, and Helen and Marian Hershkowitz. Betty is survived by her sister Wilma Gordon.
Betty was an avid reader and she loved to watch movies, especially musicals. She liked ice cream and enjoyed yard work and taking care of her plants. There was nothing Betty enjoyed more than shopping for treasures at the antique marts. She was quite a collector. She treasured spending time with her family and brought us all together whenever she could. In their younger years, Betty and Charles liked to travel with their family, and internationally once they were empty nesters. Having married so young, they were able to see many countries around the world together.
Betty walked nearly every day—even in the heat of the Arizona summer, and loved Fannie, her furry family, who is now in the care of her daughter, Erin. Betty was a progressive woman in the 60s and 70s who not only raised three children, but worked fulltime, cared for her elderly parents, and kept her family together while she did it. She worked as a trainer for the Unemployment Office in Colorado, an administrative assistant for a nearby school district in California, and an executive secretary for the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.
Betty and Charles had adventurous spirts that drove them across the country, always seeking opportunities to enrich their lives and circumstances. They lived in Missouri, Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland, Colorado, California and finally Arizona, where they both have their final resting place.
Many will remember Betty as someone with a big heart who was always there for her family and friends. She donated to charities, especially the Native American schools, the Veterans, the Humane Society and other animal rescues/shelters. She raised her children to be grateful for all their blessings, to always make too much food—just in case there was an unexpected, hungry guest—and to be kind to others. She was beloved and will be dearly missed by all who knew her.
