Betty Jean Cousins was born March 3, 1935, in Hanna to George Martin and Gertrude (Pendley) Martin. She died Jan. 10, 2024, in Guthrie at the age of 88.
Betty was raised in the Hanna area and attended the Oak Hill School. In 1950 she married Edgar Leon Cousins. They made their home in Texas and Arizona before returning to Hughes County in about 1967. While she made her home in Dustin for many years, she had most recently resided in Guthrie to be near her brother and sister. Following the death of her husband Edgar, she married Robert Willhite, and he also preceded her in death.
Betty is mostly remembered as a homemaker but had worked as an in-home caregiver and at the Fountain View Manor Nursing Home in Henryetta. She also spent some time working at the sewing factory when it was operating in Pharoah and with her sister at her restaurants in Wetumka, McAlester, Enterprise, Okemah, and Edmond. She volunteered at the Henryetta Head Start where she would read to them, and she also enjoyed teaching Sunday School at the Dustin Assembly of God Church.
Along with her husbands, Betty was also preceded in death by her children, Betty Carlene in 2005, David Leon in 2010, Gary in 2010, and Lela Ann in 2023, brothers Lloyd, Jack, Hershel, Leonard, and Cecil Martin, sisters Annie Williams and Edna Rogers, and a grandson Michael Odell Sanders.
Survivors include: eight children: Ethard Monroe (Rusty) Cousins of Harrah, Sandra Kay Johnson and husband Terry of Wetumka, Larry Eugene Cousins of Cleveland, Edward Lee Cousins of Henryetta, George William Cousins of Henryetta, John Cousins of Dustin, Marnae Lynn Summers of Henryetta, and Earl Wayne Willhite of Henryetta; Jack Hamlin of Shawnee; a brother, Floyd Ray Martin of Guthrie; a sister, Virginia Pearl Smith of Guthrie; along with several grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, other relatives, and many friends.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. at the Dustin Assembly Of God Church in Dustin, Oklahoma with Rev. Mark Smith officiating. Interment will be in Dustin Cemetery under the direction of Williamson-Spradlin Funeral Home of Wetumka.