Betty Jo Coppage Keith

Betty Keith passed away gracefully very early in the morning on September 4, 2015, surrounded by her family at the Kansas City Hospice House. Her spirit lives on through her four children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Betty was the fourth of five children of Malcolm and Florence Coppage, born on August 8, 1930 in Charleston, AR.

Betty was very proud of her teaching career, serving as the Head Start Director for 5 years and as a kindergarten teacher for 16 years in Cushing, OK. Long after her retirement, she continued to be a consummate teacher, never missing an opportunity to share a lesson or a kernel of wisdom. Betty was an avid reader. As a teacher she passionately believed in the power of teaching children to read.

After the passing of her husband Ralph Eugene (Gene) Keith in 2002, Betty moved to Overland Park, KS in 2003. She immediately became active in the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, giving presentations and participating in many aspects of church life. Here she established another group of special friends. She enjoyed her bridge clubs, attending dinner theater, and evenings out to complement her life-long friends from Oklahoma.

To know Betty, or Nana as she became known to almost everyone, means to have known the dearest of friends, warmest of mothers, and the greatest of grandmothers. In her passing, so many people commented how special Nana always made them feel. Betty is now reunited with her late husband and favorite travel companion, Gene. Together they are on to their greatest adventure.

Betty is survived by her children and grandchildren, whose stories she would share with friends having coffee around her kitchen table: son Rick and Vickie Keith and their son Matthew, Hennepin, OK; daughter, Teresa and Tom Walsh, Leawood, KS and their children Hailee Bland-Walsh and fiancé Tiffany Spriggs, Mission Hills, KS, Kelsey and Marcus Perry and their daughter Carter Lee, Mission Hills, KS, Spencer and Laura Beth Walsh, Austin, TX; son, Sam Keith, Tulsa, OK; and son, Charles and Diane Keith and their children Connor and Nicholas, Oklahoma City, OK.

Her extended family includes sister Lee Moore Sanders of Denver, CO and her family, and brother Charles Coppage of Carmichael, CA and his family, along with nieces and nephews of her late sister Bernice Jordan of McAlester, OK and her late brother Carl Coppage of Tulsa, OK.

Betty's life will be memorialized with a celebration of life on Monday, Oct. 19, 2015 at 1 pm in the Wesley Covenant Chapel at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, 13720 Roe Ave., Leawood, KS. In Nana's memory and to encourage more generations of passionate readers, donations of funds or books will be graciously accepted at Reach Out and Read, Kansas City, www.reachoutandreadkc.org or Reach Out and Read, Oklahoma, www.reachoutandreadok.org.