Family and friends are remembering Lois Norman Batts. Here’s what they are sharing with her community:
Lois Norman Batts entered fully into the presence of the Lord on Saturday, January 8, 2022. She will be greatly missed until family and friends reunite with her, someday, in Heaven.
She was born to Day and Verna Wallen on February 23, 1930, in Sioux City, Iowa – the youngest of 6 children. Her family moved to the Key Peninsula of Washington State in the early 1940s. As a young woman, she worked as a switchboard operator, long distance operator, and attended some classes at the University of Washington. In the fall of 1956, she met the love of her life, William (Bill) Batts. They were soon engaged, and then married on February 22, 1957, just one day before her 27th birthday. She joked about how she aged a year overnight.
They bought a house and settled down in the Genesee Hill area of West Seattle and raised 3 children there – Ben, Bill, and Janis.
Lois was a stay-at-home mom for many years and involved in the children’s schools. She participated in many ministries and programs at West Side Presbyterian Church during her 62-year membership, including women’s circle groups, Wedded Ring group, Sunday School teaching, VBS teaching/assisting, serving as Deaconess, MOPPETS childcare volunteer, etc… She attended Bible Study Fellowship for many years and volunteered with Friend-to Friend, which is an organization that matches volunteers to elderly folks who need the company of a friend on a regular basis. Lois participated in the West Seattle Hi-Yu parade many summers carrying a banner for Friend-to-Friend which led the vans and buses from local senior-living facilities.
Lois was always putting others first. As a non-skier, she went along on all the family ski trips every other weekend in the winters to Crystal Mountain to provide mothering, warmth, meals, encouragement, and all that it takes to get a family of 5 packed up and provided for. She also supported Bill in his other hobbies of raising & showing dahlias and boating & fishing. During her mother’s last few years of life, Lois cared for her 24 hours/day at home.
When the children were older, Lois went back to work. She started out working in the kitchen at Modern Care Nursing Home and then began to work as an Activities Assistant. She moved on to work at The Kenney Home as an Activities Assistant. Even after she retired from there, she continued for many years, to lead a class for the residents on making Kenney Kards, which were sold to help raise money for The Kenney benevolence fund.
Lois enjoyed traveling with Bill: a road trip around the USA and to Canada, they took many cruises (the Caribbean, Australia, Hawaii, Alaska, Panama Canal), a trip to Europe (France, England, Italy), many October trips to Maui, timeshare weeks to Wapato Point in Chelan. She also enjoyed playing card games and Dominoes with family and friends, making ceramic decorations, watching Mariners games, and spending time with her grandchildren.
In 1997, they sold their house and then moved into The Kenney independent-living apartments. They used to be the young ones there and felt like they were royalty as they looked out from their 4th-floor apartment windows over the beautiful lawn and gardens. In early 2019, they moved into Assisted Living as Lois’s Alzheimer’s worsened; then in October 2019, Lois moved into The Kenney’s memory care, as Bill continued in Assisted Living. For the first time since 1957, they were living apart but able to visit with each other daily. This separation was compounded further in the Spring of 2020, when The Kenney cancelled any visitation to the residents in the building due to COVID, which included any visits between people in the different living areas there. For many months Bill and Lois could only “visit” through a window. Their story was featured in the Seattle Times November issue of The Pacific NW. Fortunately, restrictions were loosened some and they could see each other again in person.
Lois passed away just short of their 65th anniversary and her 92nd birthday. She is preceded in death by her parents and all of her siblings. She is survived by her husband Bill (Mr. Bill, as she would say), son Ben Batts, son Bill Batts (Jen), and daughter Janis Kelly (Tim), grandchildren Taylor Batts (Mikaela), Ruth Sonsteng (David), Julia Foote (Spencer), Kathryn Batts, William Batts, Stephen Kelly, and Victoria Kelly-Hodder (Ben) and six great-grandchildren.
Thank you to the wonderful caregivers at Synergy Home Care Seattle, The Kenney, AMR Paramedics, and Swedish Hospital Cherry Hill.
There will be a private family ceremony on March 3rd.
(WSB publishes West Seattle obituaries and memorial announcements by request, free of charge. Please email the text, and a photo if available, to editor@westseattleblog.com)
