Betty Lou Johnston

Betty Lou Johnston, 84, of Creston, died Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at her home surrounded by family. A Celebration of Life service will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 29, at the First Baptist Church in Creston. Pastor Dave Tebbenkamp will officiate. The service will be livestreamed at a link under events at powersfh.com. The burial will be 9:30 a.m. Monday in Greenlawn Cemetery near Afton. Open visitation will be 1-5 p.m., with family receiving friends from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, at Powers Funeral Home in Creston.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are to the First Baptist Church Kitchen Remodel. Online condolences can be given at www.powersfh.com.

Betty Lou Johnston, the eldest child of Albert and Ferne Arlene (Tague) Heath, was born on Sept. 14, 1941, in Fort Dodge, while her parents lived on a farm near Gowrie. Growing up, she lived in Webster County until November 1952 when the family moved to a farm near Breckenridge in Caldwell County, Missouri. In the spring of 1958, she moved with her family back to farm north of Thayer. She attended schools at Callender, Breckenridge and Hamilton in Missouri, and graduated from Thayer High School in 1959.

Betty Lou met her husband, Everett “Dean” Johnston on Easter Sunday 1958 at Murray Bible Church in Murray, and they were married Oct. 11, 1959, at First Baptist Church at the corner of Maple and Mills streets in Creston. This union was blessed with three daughters: Vivian Arlene, Karyn Darlene and Faith Lucretia.

Betty loved her family and invested her life as a homemaker, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She enjoyed her lawn with all her trees, bushes, flowers and especially the birds, which she faithfully fed and watered. She was also a fine seamstress and enjoyed sewing clothes for her children. After the children had grown, she learned to sew quilts which she loved to do.

Shortly after moving to the farm they purchased on Cherry Street Road, Betty Lou convinced Dean they should take beekeeping classes from C.R. Corey of Arispe. What started as a hobby grew into a small business, keeping about 120 colonies of bees. They marketed the honey through the local grocery stores but sold most of it from home. They even sold honey wholesale in 55-gallon drums. On their best year, they produced over six tons of honey.

Betty Lou accepted the Lord as her savior at a Southern Baptist Summer Bible Camp in Missouri. She was a member of the First Baptist Church in Creston since 1960 and had served as a teacher in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School for several years. Prior to joining the First Baptist Church, she had attended the Murray Bible Church, now the Murray Baptist Church, the Baptist Church in Breckenridge, Missouri, and the Harcourt Covenant Church.

After Dean’s retirement, Dean and Betty loved to travel. They loved summers in Alaska, and they spent their winters in Florida from 1996 through 2010. They attended Riverview Heights Missionary Baptist Church in Wauchula, Florida, during those years. In 2002, while in Florida, Betty experienced a stroke that greatly challenged their lives. She worked very hard to regain the ability to speak, and though life was challenging, they continued to travel and enjoy their life together. Later that year, they sold their home north of Creston to their daughter and son-in-law, Faith and Brian Burkhalter.

Anticipating a future when they wouldn’t be able to travel, Dean built a cottage in their north yard which served as a blessing to Betty as she was able to continue living there after Dean’s death. She loved watching her grandchildren playing in the yard and having them pop in to visit her. She was very thankful that she was able to stay at home since Faith was able to take care of her for the rest of her life.

Betty Lou was preceded in death by her husband Dean in 2010; her parents, Albert and Ferne Heath; her stepmom Manera Heath; her son-in-law Brian Schwab and her brothers, Robert Heath and Steve Heath.

She is survived by her three daughters: Vivian (Don) Johnston of Altoona, Karyn (Willie) Tierney of Greenfield, Indiana, and Faith (Brian) Burkhalter of Creston; nine grandchildren: Laura (Brandon) Reese, Daniel (Katie) Schwab, Amanda (Nate) Rude, Dixon, Lydia and Aiden Tierney, and Ethan, Garett (Alysha) and Jocelyn Burkhalter; five great-grandchildren: Aubrey, Brian and Olivia Schwab, and Dean and Mabel Rude and sister Carol Johnson