Graveside service for Betty Yvonne (Hennessee) Watts was held on Friday, January 7, 2022 at Flower Mound Cemetery.

Burial was under the direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.

Betty Yvonne (Hennessee) Watts died on Monday, January 3, 2022, at the age of 79.   She was born January 26, 1942, in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Ralph Alex and Ora Florene (Stapp) Hennessee. Betty's parents had concessions at School Home Slough and the Dam Café at Lake Lawtonka where she worked and learned that hard work is essential in life. She loved boating and water skiing with her friends at the lake.

While growing up, Betty lived at 1212 NW Arlington. She walked to Washington School with several neighborhood friends, and considered twins Ella and Stella Price and their mother Jurhee Price as close lifelong friends. She attended Central Junior High School and was homecoming queen attendant and voted "best dressed" in 1958. Betty thought of herself as a member of the 1961 Lawton High School class, but she took extra hours and graduated a year early in 1960.  She went on to attend Oklahoma State University.

She married Michael Frank "Mickey" Bohl on June 30, 1962, in Lawton and accompanied him when he was stationed in Alabama, Texas, and Germany. Betty was proud of their lovely daughters Loretta and Melinda. When Loretta became very ill while they were in Germany, Betty was determined to find the right health care services for her, and what she did saved Loretta's life.

In December 1977, Betty received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and began teaching elementary education in Lafayette in March 1978. She later received a Master's Degree in Special Education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1995.

Betty moved back to Lawton with her two daughters in 1978. Determined to provide for them, she taught school at Medicine Park until the school closed in 1983 and then taught science at Tomlinson Junior High School until her retirement.

She married Dwain C. Watts on August 4, 1984, in Lawton. He died on January 25, 2005.  She used owl pellets to teach more about owls and the ecosystems in which they lived. She also enjoyed teaching about classifying rocks and minerals, and she and Dwain traveled several places to obtain rock samples.

Betty loved her family most of all. She also loved living in her house behind Flower Mound School, surrounded by the beauty of flowers, shrubs, and trees she planted. She enjoyed the sparkle of icicle lights around her property at Christmas time. She had a passion for dogs, scary movies, collecting dolls, sewing for her family, cooking lunch for her two MacArthur High School grandsons and their friends, and baking the best Thanksgiving turkey ever in a brown paper sack.

She had once belonged to Rho chapter of Kappa Kappa Iota, the Pioneer Club, Inc., of Lawton, the Flower Mound Sunday School class, and the Flower Mound Cemetery Memorial Day Flag Committee. She was a member of First Baptist East Lawton.

She is survived by her daughter Melinda (Bohl) Gordon and her husband Mark; five grandchildren Ryan John (Katelyn), Seth John (Jennifer), and Megan, Melissa, and Kyle Gordon; five great grandchildren Chisum, Brecklyn, Avery, Cason, and Jhett John; son-in-law Lance John; and sister Mikel (Hennessee) Ladymon.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Dwain; her daughter Loretta Beth (Bohl) John on February 26, 2020; and her sister Carolyn Kay (Hennessee) Bass on September 20, 2005.