Betty Anne Keim Sperline

April 4, 1921 – March 12, 2017

Betty Anne Keim Sperline, 95, of Soap Lake, Wash. passed away on March 12, 2017 from the long-term effects of heart disease. Betty and her late husband, Don, lived for many years in Ephrata and Moses Lake, followed by retirement years in the Puget Sound area. After eight years in the wonderful retirement community of Wesley Homes Lea Hill in Auburn, Betty spent the last four months of earthly life in the loving care of the angels of McKay Healthcare in Soap Lake.

Betty was born April 4, 1921 in Chicago, Ill., the first of three children of Silas A. Keim and Icel S. Lehman Keim. After her father’s medical school education, Betty’s family relocated to East Wenatchee, where she became acquainted in childhood with her future husband, Don Sperline. Don was also a child of Wenatchee Valley pioneers John C. Sperline, longtime Justice of the Peace, and Minnie Phillipi. Both families were active in the Church of the Brethren.

After graduating from Wenatchee High School, Betty attended and graduated from Manchester College, in her family’s heartland, with a degree in biology and a minor in cello. After Don’s graduation from Laverne College, they married in 1942. Following Don’s military deployment to the European theater, they began their family with the birth of Judith in 1944. Before Judy was 5 years old, Betty had four children to care for at home, and a fifth child four years later. Betty’s education served her well as a homemaker — she instilled a love of learning in all her children. She served as organist for a Moses Lake congregation and filled her home with the music of her autoharp and console Hammond organ.

After sharing her children’s early years at home, Betty returned to public education, as a kindergarten teacher and librarian in the Soap Lake, Ephrata (Parkway Elementary), and later Moses Lake (Frontier Junior High) school districts. Following their retirements, the Sperlines relocated to the Puget Sound area and wintered in California and Arizona. They resided in Redondo and later Puyallup; upon Don’s death, Betty moved to the Wesley Homes retirement facility, a community of friends she dearly loved. She was a member of Auburn Methodist Church.

Betty is survived by her five children Judy Walsh of Ephrata, Tom (and Andrea) Sperline of Lakewood, Colo., David (and Susan) Sperline of Redmond, Evan (and Linda) Sperline of Soap Lake and Eric (and Leslie Hand) Sperline of Renton, as well as numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Don, and by her parents, brother James Keim, and sister Patricia Coffman.

A memorial service will be celebrated at First United Methodist Church, 100 N St. SE, Auburn, Wash., at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 4 (Betty’s 96th birthday), Pastor Daniel Miranda presiding. An inurnment ceremony for the family will follow at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.