Betty Ann Landree Dickinson died on May 22,2015 at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor after suffering from serious health problems. She was 82. Cremation was private. A gathering of relatives and friends will be held in the fall at a date to be determined.
Betty moved to Lawrence with her husband in 1991 after a 20 year career as research associate and quality assurance officer with Hazleton Laboratories in Vienna, VA.,a Washington, D.C. suburb. From 1991 until 1995. she worked part time as a medical technologist at Watkins Student Health Center at the University of Kansas.
She was born at home , Dec. 14,1932, in Keytesville, Mo.,the daughter of Roy Gray Landree and Margaret Virginia Rucker Landree. The family had moved to Keytesville when her parents lost their bookkeeping jobs in Kansas City during the Great Depression. With the outbreak of World War II, they returned to the Kansas City area to take jobs in defense industries.
Betty graduated from Shawnee Mission High School near the top of her class. She worked summers as a ward clerk at the KU Medical Center. She attended Lindenwood College for Women in St. Charles, Mo. on a full academic scholarship in 1950-51 before transferring to the University of Kansas.
She married William B. Dickinson III in Danforth Chapel on the KU campus in 1953. When her husband graduated and was drafted during the final days of the Korean War, she left KU. After bearing two sons, she resumed her studies at American University in Washington, D.C., and graduated from KU with a major in microbiology in 1968. She received certification as a registered medical technologist from American University in 1969.
After fully retiring from Hazleton Laboratories and moving to Lawrence with her husband, she became a Master Gardener with the Douglas County Extension Service and frequently fielded phoned-in questions from local residents. She was active in the University Women’s Club, the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and supported Friends of the University Theatre and Friends of the School of Music. She traveled widely abroad on garden tours and cruises, and took special pleasure in watching the Kansas City Royals on television. Attending piano recitals by KU students on campus and at the home of Dave and Gunda Hiebert were magical occasions for her.
She is survived by her husband, of the Lawrence home; two sons, William B. Dickinson IV of Overland Park, Kan., and David Alan Dickinson of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and four grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to the Master Gardeners program of Douglas County, Friends of the KU Theatre, or Friends of the KU School of Music.
