9/10/2000
The funeral service for Bette Ruth (Murphy) Pierce was September 12, 2000, following her passing from cancer on September 10, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The musical selection was " How Great Thou Art." The
soloist was her brother Clayton Murphy and the pianist was Rose Reynolds Murphy. Casketbearers were her son Larry Pierce, her grandsons Aaron Pierce and Seth Pierce and her brother Clayton Murphy. Interment was at Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Bette was born in Los Angeles, California, on October 4, 1925, to Elsie Margaret Sargent Williams Wilson (Murphy) and Frederick Thomas Wilson.
At a young age she moved to Knoxville, Iowa, where she graduated from high school in 1943. After marriage to Luther Pierce of Des Moines, Iowa, they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.
Bette was employed by IBM for over twenty years, in Lincoln, Omaha, and Bloomington, Minnesota.
Bette was preceded in death by her parents Elsie and Fred, her sister Martha Williams Holmgren of Estherville, Iowa, and one grandson, Larry Phillip Pierce, Jr., of Lincoln.
Her survivors included one son, Larry (Linda) of Lincoln, one daughter, Susan, of Lincoln, two grandsons, Aaron (Crystal) Pierce, of Lincoln, and Seth Pierce, of Lincoln (deceased 2007), and two great-grandsons, Maxwell and Wesley of Lincoln.
Bette enjoyed attending reunions of the Knoxville High School Class of 1943 in her later years, with her daughter Susan and Bette's lifelong high school friend Olive Neal (married name: Virginia/Ginny Morris and husband Marion Morris) of Des Moines."