Betty Ann Lessnau

Betty Ann Lessnau, 74, passed away Saturday Aug 30th, at her home in Midvale after succumbing to her 12 year battle with ovarian cancer.  She was born May 22nd 1940 in Muncie, Indiana, the oldest daughter of Ed and Joe Ann Dixon.  Betty is sister to brothers, Steve and Leon Dixon and sister to Suzy Herro. She attended Burris and Muncie Central High School.  She met and married Max Werking, the father of her sons and later, Gary Lessnau and Phil Becker. Betty retired as an office manager from Union 76 Geothermal Division in Santa Rosa California.  She sold her home in Santa Rosa at the peak of the 90’s real estate boom in California and took the proceeds to live in Kino Bay Mexico for a couple of years. During her lifetime she also lived in Phoenix, Tampa, Fort Worth, and Detroit.  Betty was an avid and skilled gardener and loved trees.  Betty was also an active member of the Red Hat society, along with Chapeau hat club.  She loved hats! She always dressed up no matter where she was going. She was a parishioner of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church.  Betty was also skilled in social card games and was often the winner in Bunco and Spades.  She would often help with the planning of luncheons for the Newcomers group.  She also had a unique love for elephant memorabilia, a tradition passed on by her mother.  If you were to sit down to share a meal with her you would soon notice that before tasting her food she would over-salt everything, yet she never suffered from high blood pressure.  She had a gentle kindness and a sweet disposition.  Well liked by peers and loved deeply by family.  Betty was a free spirit with 3 tattoos. In her 70’s she took up weight lifting.  During squats she would demand her personal trainer (IFBB Pro Jim Robertson) to increase her weights by another 10 pounds. When going to movies she preferred art house and independent films.  She did not like sweets at all.  She is known by family and friends as a great cook and later in life she became a connoisseur of home made beef jerky.  She loved to travel to the more exotic locations.  She often used the travel benefits of her son’s airline job to travel to foreign destinations.  Betty was a voracious reader and her family and friends would often see her visiting the library to gather another stack of books.

Betty is survived by four sons, Greg, Bruce, Andy and Doug Werking.  She has 10 grandchildren, Kip (Univ. of Texas/William and Mary Law), Kiel (Texas Tech/SMU MBA), Spencer (“Boo”) (Texas Tech), Ryan (Colorado School of Mines), Victoria (Chico State), Shallon (Simpson), Sheena (Vanguard), Austin (Oregon), Nicole (UCLA) and Max Jr. (St Andrews High School Boca Raton). Betty has seven great-grand children. 

The vigil will be held on Friday, September 5th at 7:00 pm at Starks Funeral Parlor, 3651 South 900 East, Salt Lake City, where a wake will follow. A funeral mass will be celebrated on Saturday, September 6th at 10:00 am at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, 3015 E. Creek Rd Sandy, Utah 84093.

The family thanks the Huntsman Cancer Center for the tremendous and extraordinary care that Betty received and requests that you donate, in lieu of flowers, to help support this national treasure.  Please send donations to: Huntsman Cancer Foundation,  500 Huntsman Way Salt Lake City, UT 84108.  801-584-5800 https://donate.huntsmancancer.org

And finally the care of the Huntsman Cancer Center was only exceeded by the loving and gentle care of Betty’s closest friend and roommate “Fay Andrews”.  Betty would ask us to help her support her friend with their shared passion to the outstanding work of the “Make a wish” foundation.  Please consider making a donation to Make-A-Wish® America 4742 N. 24th Street, Suite 400 Phoenix, AZ 85016-4862 or online at www.wish.org.

2 Timothy 6-8:

For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.