Headrick, Betty M. 1929-2025 St. Joseph, Mo.
Betty Mae McClanahan Headrick, 95, of St. Joseph, passed away Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in a St. Joseph hospital. She was born May 31, 1929, in Hemple, Missouri, daughter of the late Florence Pearl Smith and Robert Lee McClanahan.
She graduated from Gower, Missouri, High School in 1947 and attended business school in St. Joseph. (A great accomplishment was that she typed 100 words a minute on a manual typewriter). On May 20, 1949, she married Leland Headrick, who passed away on June 2, 2012.
Betty worked at Hillyard Chemical Company and J.C. Penney for several years, after retirement she also enjoyed volunteering at the hospital and traveling with many organized trips around the United States.
Betty loved to listen to Kitchen Klatter at 9 a.m. on KFEQ radio, she enjoyed working the primary and general elections at various locations, she was a 4-H leader at the club and county levels. Summer time was filled with canning and freezing vegetables and fruit from the garden, making homemade butter from the family Guernsey milk cows on the farm. She enjoyed preparing her family’s favorite dishes when they would come home to visit. She also loved sewing and doing embroidery work.
Betty was a member of the McCarthy Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School classes and participated in many other church related activities.
She was preceded in death by husband, Leland L Headrick; her parents; sisters, Julia L. Rupp, Edris Sears, and Marcell George; and her brother, Paul McClanahan.
Survivors include daughter, Jane Koogler and husband Fred, of Pella, Iowa; son, Jerry Headrick and wife Debbie, of Kansas City, Kansas; daughter, Nancy Headrick, of Kansas City, Missouri; grandsons: Jayson (Imelda) Headrick, Josh (Monika) Headrick, Phillip Headrick, and Scott Murray; granddaughters: Tracy (Bryan) Pierce, and Genny Lund; as well as five great-grandchildren.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 a.m. on Monday at the Rupp Funeral Home. Funeral services and public live stream; 11 a.m. Monday, April 7, 2025, at the Rupp Funeral Home. The Interment will be at the Memorial Park Cemetery. Memorials are requested to the Living Communities memorial fund or to Mosaic Hospice.
Online condolence, obituary and public live stream at www.ruppfuneral.com. As published in the St. Joseph News-Press.
