Betty Marie (Little) Herbert, 99 ½ years young, a resident of the Villas of Holly Brook, Brazil, passed away on Dec. 30, 2020. It is the end of what she would call a colorful life…a life full of many small details that she journaled along the way. She made a huge impact on anyone she met.
Born June 22, 1921 in Poland, IN to Burlin Clifford “Tom” and Iva (Moore) Little, Betty’s love of Poland and its history was known by any who knew her. She spent most of her life in the small, rural community of Poland and worked hard to improve it in any way she saw she could.
She grew up on the family farm, the last residence before leaving Clay Co into Owen Co, that her mother’s parents had owned, having moved out of Poland proper at the age of 4. She learned many things on the farm that stuck with her for life…mostly how to improvise and find a way to accomplish anything you put your mind to. She was ingenious and could practically have been labeled an engineer in her own right because of farm living. She was quirky about some things, she loved to eat the farm chickens but NOT their eggs. She admitted she was always a very picky eater but her mother had spoiled her, making her only what she wanted to eat as a child. She told stories about her & her brother, Russell, 2 years older than her, having a wonderful childhood with all the neighbor kids, playing outside well into the dark. There were 16 kids, among only a few families.
She was very sick at the start of 1st grade at the Poland school but her Mom was persuaded to send her later on, by the teacher she would come to love & adore, Marie Sendmeyer Kattman. She had a close relationship with her until Marie’s death. She had no affinity for school though, dropping out at 16 when she was hired by the Poland Postmaster, Lena Anderson, to help with the Christmas rush. Lena was like a 2nd Mom to her. She also worked for Lena’s husband, Emery “Jack” Anderson in the summer at the peach orchards he had in the Cass Township area. She enjoyed working and being self-sufficient. She told of how it gave her great confidence that Lena left her in charge of the Post Office while she went to Postal conventions.
As a new bridge was built near their farm in 1939, her mother boarded several of the workmen, one would become her 1st husband, Charles M. Cline of Belle Union, IN. They married in Feb. 1940 and traveled around the country with his work, living in a 22’ box travel trailer while building roads & bridges….enjoying life with the other families that also travelled for the work. Betty babysat many children but never had any of her own. While living in Low Moor, IA, she was part owner of the Low Moor Café. After 10 years, the marriage ended and she boarded a train back to Poland.
She applied and took a job at Miller-Parrot Baking Company in TH, making soda crackers and cookies (the former site of the Lighthouse Mission and now the new Miller-Parrott Lofts) She rented a sleeping room on 9th St. during the week and got a ride home on weekends from the Andersons. She then took a job at the American Can Company, along the Wabash River. She worked the night shift and saved up enough to buy her first car, a 1951 Ford V-8. She worked for them for 15 years, eventually transferring to the Indianapolis plant after meeting Harry Wayland “Bud” Herbert and getting married Oct. 3, 1953. They lived in Broad Ripple where Bud owned “Herb’s Radio & TV Service”. In 1964, they bought their future home in Poland that would be where they lived when they moved back in July 1968. They drove to Poland on weekends to visit family as well as to dig out the basement, wheel barrows at a time! As a kid, she would walk to school down the alley past that very house and fell in love with it then. She remembered Mrs. Strauch standing on the steps waving as she walked by. The Poland School was eventually closed, torn down and replaced by the Poland Park. She would later take on the care of the park and took much pride in knowing that local children could enjoy it. She mowed it and her own yard with a riding mower until the age of 95.
She was the founding member of the ‘Poland Lions Club’ and they would later take over the care of the park. She felt they needed to purchase new playground equipment and that came to fruition. The Lions Club renamed the Park ‘Herbert Park’ in her honor but she didn’t want the recognition. She was never one to “toot her own horn”.
She and Bud enjoyed square dancing and traveled often to Indianapolis for dance rounds. And Bud, being a tv & radio man, loved the era of personal computers, purchasing their first one at the Radio Shack in Brazil in Feb. 1982 after dropping her off to do volunteer work at the Clay County Genealogical Society. She was an active volunteer there for many years. Bud wrote programs in Basic to help with indexing records. The 2 of them visited and catalogued several local cemeteries helping many genealogists to find pertinent information. She was one to dig for answers when anyone wrote a letter to the society, she searched like it was for her own family.
She loved to travel but didn’t much until the death of Bud in Nov. 2003. He had had a brain tumor in 1991 that caused him to have balance issues so he didn’t like to travel much. She got her passport and traveled to Europe in her late 80’s with friends. Even at 93, it was nothing for her to drive to Evansville, alone. The ability to hop in her car and go wherever she wanted was important to her. Giving her car up at 96 was hard, but it was a decision she made on her own.
The Poland Historic Chapel, where she had attended Sunday School as a child, also under the teaching of Marie Kattman, was also a special place to her. She was a member of the Poland Chapel board, many years as Vice President. Upkeep of the Chapel was important to her, even if it required going high up on a ladder while in her 80’s! If it needed to be done, she found a way.
She loved the Brazil Concert band playing on Sunday evenings at the park, as well as feeding birds & cleaning up her yard but she would often admit, she was never a good housekeeper. Bud wouldn’t allow her to buy a dishwasher with money she had saved up, so she agreed that was ok, as long as he washed all of the dishes… and he did.
A fall down her basement stairs in Feb, 2017 caused a major injury to her right shin that precipitated her being in several hospitals and then rehab at Cloverleaf until May 2017. After 3 weeks at home, it became necessary to move her into assisted living in Brazil. She liked her apartment &, made some new friends. She loved to tell the stories of her life as well as learn the stories of others. She was curious about everyone and everything. That’s what living was to her, her memory for the small details was amazing, even until the day she was called home. Learning something new every day and looking for ways to better the places around her. Nothing seemed impossible to her. Her wish was to live to be 100, she didn’t quite make it but she often said she enjoyed life and had no complaints.
Betty attended the Poland Zion UCC church. She has no immediate family but many friends who dearly loved and miss her. Cremation has been entrusted to French Funeral Home. Graveside services will take place at a later date in Poland at the Zion UCC Cemetery where her family is also buried.