Betty Dittfurth
SOUTHLAKE - Betty Dittfurth, also known as Sister, Mrs. D, Miss Betty, Mom, Omi and Oma,left her earthly home to join her husband, Herbert, a myriad of other Believers but more importantly, her Lord and Savior on Monday morning, March 2, 2020. She was 86 years old and a resident of Discovery Assisted Living in Southlake at the time of her death. She had been declining over the past several months. She died peacefully in her sleep.
For those interested in sharing stories and visiting, food and beverage will be provided by Foundation Baptist and First Baptist Keller. Address of the meeting site will be provided at the cemetery and is just a few blocks away.
Memorials: In lieu of flowers, the family wishes donations be made in her name to either Tarrant County Diabetes Collaboration (TCDC), a non-profit organization established in 1997 as part of a community-based approach to address Type 2 diabetes among people living in Tarrant County; the March of Dimes, a non-profit organization, to their identification of best practices in the diagnosis and care of post-polio syndrome (PPS) patients. PPS does not obtain the same level of acknowledgment as other debilitating ailments due to the small cohort of patients who survived the disease.
Betty was the oldest child born to Gordon Douglas and Mahalia Louise Seabourn and was raised most of her life in Eastland, a small town in west Texas. At the age of 18 months, she contracted polio and had to learn to walk again after she survived. When she was five years old, she recovered from rheumatic fever. When she was eight years old, she suffered 4th degree burns to her back when the bow of her dress caught fire. She was hospitalized for several months, yet once again, recovering. She was diabetic which agitated her symptoms of post - polio in her later years.
She was a 1953 graduate of Eastland High School where she learned photography and overpainting (the hand coloring of black and white photos) and enjoyed returning to her hometown when she could for high school reunions. She worked as a waitress at the White Elephant Cafe before and after graduation and where she met her husband-to-be. She married the man with the ‘53 green Mercury Coupe, Herbert Alfred Dittfurth, on August 29, 1953. She was several years his junior and his family joked she aged him another whole year in two days since his birthday was August 31st. They moved town to town following his work as a heavy equipment operator and soon bought a trailer to ease their moving around.
Once, she moved the trailer during the day when she saw an empty space under a large shade tree left by a trailer moving out. She left a note telling her husband they had moved, he owed the landlord rent and money for moving the trailer to their new address. They were living near Meacham Airport (where the Saginaw exit on Loop 820 is now) when the airport expanded in 1957, causing them to move their trailer one last time to Saginaw into the Worthy Trailer Park. The Dittfurth family has become a large part of Saginaw’s history.
She and Herbert had four children; Doug (1955), Dahli (1959), Don (1960) and Dan (1967). She worked part-time from home for the Saginaw Herald, and performed overpainting for the Saginaw Pharmacy after the growing family bought a house on Watauga Road (now McLeroy Boulevard) in 1960, just inside the city limits sign. When Dan started school for one year she had one at Saginaw Elementary, one at Wayside Middle School, one at Boswell High School (all in the Eagle Mountain - Saginaw Independent School District) and one at Texas Christian University. It was then she enrolled at Tarrant County Community College (TCCC) to continue her education. She and her husband were active members of Saginaw Park Baptist Church. She taught the Dorcas Sunday school class for years, sang in the church choir and always looked forward to teaching in their Vacation Bible School. Later in life, they moved their membership to the First Baptist Church of Saginaw.
After earning her associate degree from TCCC (now Tarrant County College), she was able to enter the graduate diploma studies program at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. She earned her degree in Child Studies while working as Director of the Baptist Goodwill Center serving the barrios of north Fort Worth in 1990. Soon thereafter, she moved to the seminary’s Children’s Center as lead teacher for 18 to 35 month toddlers for several years while working towards earning her Masters until her retirement.
Betty was preceded in death by her parents, Gordon and Louise Seabourn; her husband, Herbert Dittfurth; and grandchildren, Christian and Christopher Covington and Cheri Dean.
She is survived by her sister, Donna Dee Seabourn of Waco; her children, Douglas Herbert Dittfurth and wife, Leslie of Austin, Dahli Louisa Covington of Blue Mound, DoriAnna Dean and husband, John of Watauga, and Daniel Alfred Dittfurth of Saginaw; her grandchildren, Crystal Dinc and husband, Mustafa of Richland Hills, Hans Dittfurth of Saginaw, Heath Dittfurth and wife, Laura of Saginaw, Chelsea Dean Johnson and husband, Allan of Tracy, Calif., Cathrine Dean of Watauga and Cindi Dean of Watauga; great-grandchildren Cora, Graham and Danielle (Dani) Dittfurth, all of Saginaw; and Beril and Beyza Dinc of Richland Hills. She is also survived by numerous other beloved family members on both her and Herbert’s side as he had 12 brothers and sisters, a feat to which she was always jealous since her sister wasn’t born until she was in high school.
Funeral was held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 5, 2020 in Mount Olivet Chapel. Interment: Saginaw Cemetery, Saginaw, Texas. For those interested in sharing stories and visiting, food and beverage will be provided by Foundation Baptist and First Baptist Keller. Address of the meeting site will be provided at the cemetery and is just a few blocks away.