A large number of residents and guests gathered at the Spring Valley campus of the Perry Lutheran Homes Friday afternoon to celebrate a donation given in honor of Betty Lou Schwarzkopf of Adel, who passed away in April, and to hold a “Betty Luau” complete with leis and tiny bubbles.
The master of ceremonies at the Hawaii-themed party was Jan Pattee of Perry, Betty’s daughter, who explained the circumstances of the gift.
“Close to $2,000 in memorial gifts were given to Spring Valley in my mom’s honor after she passed,” Jan said. “So we thought of buying some bright red furniture to place out back and having a party with the residents.”
Perry Lutheran Homes CEO the Rev. Max Phillips was present to thank the Schwarzkopf family for their gift of furniture to the Spring Valley residents and to praise Betty Lou.
“We not only enjoyed you all and your family history here but with Chick and Betty and their five, almost six years of residence here,” Phillips said. “This is a great remembrance of all the blessings they brought to us.”
Betty Lou (Soll) Schwarzkopf died March 5, 2019, just six days shy of her 91st birthday. Her husband, Philip “Chick” Schwarzkopf, preceded her in death on June 12, 2018. A fair number of the Schwarzkopfs’ six children, 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren attended Friday’s memorial donation.
Jan thanked her brothers and sisters and family and friends for attending, and she recalled some of the wisdom her mother shared later in life.
“Every time they left the table after lunch or supper,” Jan said, “Betty would say, no matter what they’d been talking about, ‘Everything will all work itself out.’ She was always very positive about that.”
Jan also repeated her mother’s favorite advice to her grandchildren: “When you’re 90 years old, you get to eat dessert first.” She said Betty “lived her life fully and never missed a chance for a party with friends and family.”
The mingling crowd snacked on crudités and sipped sparkling wines to the sound of “Tiny Bubbles” by Leon Pober, a song popularized in 1967 by the Hawaiin crooner Don Ho.
Tiny bubbles in the wine
Make me happy, make me feel fine.
Tiny bubbles make me warm all over
With a feeling that I’m gonna
Love you till the end of time.
So here’s to the ginger lei
I give to you today,
And here’s a kiss
That will not fade away.
Tiny bubbles (hu’a li’i)
In the wine (i ka waina)
Make me happy (au hau’oli)
Make me feel fine (i ka waina inu).
