Community celebrates Betor’s many contributions

By Shelley Swift | Daily R eporter sswift@greenfieldreporter.com

GREENFIELD — Those who knew her say Greenfield just won’t be the same without Gwen Betor’s radiant smile.

The longtime community activist died Friday at the age of 89, but friends say the indelible impact she made on her adopted hometown will be felt for generations to come.

“Gwen was just the kindest, most loving person,” said Mary Greenan, a good friend who served as a hostess alongside Betor at the James Whitcomb Riley Boyhood Home & Museum.

“The best thing of the many best things about her was she was such a great listener. When she would talk to someone or ask you about yourself, she really listened, and could recall months later little details you shared,” she said.

Pictured at left:

Gwen Betor poses at the James Whitcomb Riley Boyhood Home & Museum in Greenfield in this 2019 photo. “When you see all the artifacts we have and hear his story, you begin to understand how important James Whitcomb Riley was and how he spoke to small-town America,” Betor said at the time.

Tom Russo | Daily Report er

Upon moving to Greenfield in her fifties during the mid-1990s, Betor got heavily involved in a number of local organizations including Greenfield Historic Landmarks, Greenfield Main Street and the Riley Old Home Society, to name a few.

She also got involved with Hancock County Historical Society, and helped found Hancock County Herb Society in 1998.

Of her many activities, serving as a hostess at the Riley museum was perhaps Betor’s most passionate pursuit.

“She was a cheerleader of all things Riley and Hancock County,” said her longtime friend, Deborah Smith, who once illustrated a children’s book written by mutual friend Judy Laird, featuring images of Betor leading a tour in the Riley House gardens.

‘Delightful’

Smith said Betor was not only an engaging history buff but a “delightful traveling companion” on trips to Italy and Greece, and a “wonderful confidante and mentor” in the HEARTS Bible study they both attended.

Smith still attends the bibliography book club launched by Betor, who was also active in two more book clubs through Hancock County Public Library.

Even after she moved into a Greenfield rehabilitative care facility in late February due to breathing issues, Betor was passionate about staying involved whenever she could.

One of her three daughters, Marion Baumgarten, recalled how her mother invited the Greenfield Historic Landmarks board to hold its monthly meeting at her rehab facility, and even booked them a room.

“She didn’t like to miss anything that was going on in Greenfield,” Greenan said.

Betor was a regular fixture at local functions, from nonprofit fundraisers to performances at the H.J. Ricks Centre for the Arts and concerts at Depot Street Park.

Greenan said Betor was also very philanthropic but kept her generosity under the radar.

“She would donate her time and money to things and not tell anybody about it. In other words, when there was something we needed for one of our programs, it would appear. She was a very generous, very kind lady,” she said.

Smith said she always admired how progressive Betor was, especially for her generation, serving as a healthcare administrator and an advocate for women’s rights, while raising three daughters on her own.

Betor was also a member of the Hancock County League of Women Voters.

“She was very progressive and highly intelligent person. She was also so much fun,” Smith said. “I didn’t think of her like a grandmother or mother. I thought of her as a friend.”

Final farewell

When Betor passed away May 22, her three daughters were by her side.

“She was an only child, so she was just so thrilled to have three daughters and six grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren,” Baumgarten said. “She just loved having this family that was so much larger than what she had.”

On April 22, a month prior to her passing, a group of friends and family threw a surprise 89th birthday party for Betor at her rehab facility, where she was planning to transition to assisted living.

While she lived in many places over the years, Baumgarten said it was Greenfield that felt the most like home.

Betor was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but moved with her mother to Coral Springs, Florida, after father died when she was 6.

She later studied elementary education at Mary Washington College, which was then called the Women’s College of the University of Virginia, in Fredericksburg.

After college she would live in Washington, D.C., Indianapolis and parts of Virginia before settling down in Greenfield to live near one of her daughters.

At one point while living in Indianapolis, Betor served as a hospice volunteer, which led her to a career in hospital administration after working as a teacher for years.

Baumgarten said it was Betor’s skillset and compassion that led her down that path.

“The people at hospice were just really impressed with her skills and said, ‘You know what, this is something I think you should look into,’” she said, so Betor got her nursing administration license and launched her second career.

She worked for many years at Robin Run Village in Indianapolis and later switched to consulting, serving as the interim administrator for various nursing homes around the state.

When Betor fully retired she didn’t stay unemployed for long, but quickly went to work part-time as a hostess at the Riley Home & Museum — leading groups of school children and other guests through Riley’s historic home, enthusiastically sharing every little detail, practically giddy each time she got to show a new group the “glowing eyes” inside an attic door.

“She was such an amazing storyteller. When we were walking through the home, you could just really envision each room as she was telling you what it was used for and all about the Riley family,” said Ellen Kuker, superintendent of Greenfield Parks, which oversees the Riley home and museum.

“People really felt immersed in her tours, because she made history come to life for them,” she said.

“Anyone who took a tour with her was impacted in such a positive way by her passion for history and for keeping Riley’s memory alive,” said Kuker, who said it’s Betor’s spark and boundless enthusiasm she’ll miss the most.

“I’d see Gwen out in the community and she was always so friendly. She was one of those people who really made Greenfield feel like home, because she always had a smile and didn’t know a stranger. Her attitude was infectious,” she said.

Love of history

Betor first got a taste for historic work while volunteering at the Benjamin Harrison Home in Indianapolis, where she helped create some educational programs using her background in elementary education.

While at the Riley Home, Baumgarten said her mother’s input was instrumental in creating the popular pixie tea parties in the Riley garden and the Lizabuth Ann’s Kitchen addition on the back of the museum.

“I think the older she got, the more she got into history, and really became interested in the history of Greenfield,” said Baumgarten, who knows one of the highlights for her mother was researching the life of Greenfield’s first Black businessman — George Knox — and getting to meet his family.

“She just really loved Greenfield, and loved all the people that she met and interacted with. She just wanted to make the town a better place,” said her daughter, adding that her mother was community-minded in every place she lived.

“She was always involved. She has always been social and always very involved in church. We did move quite a bit, but she could always plug into the local Episcopalian church,” she said.

Baumgarten said back at a church in Virginia, her mother and another woman created a thrift store-type clothing ministry roughly 50 years ago, which still serves the community today.

While arrangements weren’t yet finalized as of press time Tuesday, a funeral service for Betor will take place next month at the Church of the Nativity in Indianapolis, where she was a member.

Pictured from top:

In this September 2022 photo, James Whitcomb Riley Boyhood Home & Museum hostesses Gwen Betor and Mary Greenan marvel over the dozens of entries in the Riley Birthday Club binder, which honors those who share an Oct. 7 birthday with the late poet James Whitcomb Riley. // Betor regales a group of Eden Elementary students with stories of what it was like growing up in Greenfield in the mid-1800s. Betor was a longtime docent at the James Whitcomb Riley Boyhood Home & Museum. This tour in 2022 was one of the first after the museum resumed its popular school tours after a two-year hiatus due to COVID.

Shelley Swift and Tom Russo | Daily Reporter