Obituary of Betty Ann Simich

Betty Ann Simich died August 5, 2023 at St.Lukes Hospital. She was 95 years old.

Betty’s mother Annabell Sandstrom died when Betty was less than 2 years of age. Betty’s grandmother, Sarah Seavey, provided love and care and raised Betty as her own in Deerwood, MN. Betty’s life in Deerwood was carefree, pleasant, and provided fond childhood memories. Betty enjoyed playing with her dog Tag and doing chores for her grandmother. Sarah Seavey raised her granddaughter to be kind, considerate and strong.

In the latter years of WWII, Betty moved to Duluth and started working. She became a waitress at Fritz’s Restaurant in West Duluth and while working at Fritz’s, met the love of her life and future husband Leon Edward Simich.

Betty and Leon were married on December 28th 1946 at 1st Methodist Church in Duluth. They lived in Lester Park for many years and raised two sons, Mike and Kevin. The community of Lester Park provided a superb setting to raise their sons and many additional lifelong friendships and acquaintances.

Next door neighbor, Lavone Swor, welcomed Betty to the neighborhood on her first day in their new house with a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The entire Swor family (Henry, Lavone, Nancy, Jeffrey, Roger and Bradley) were always outstanding neighbors. Betty and Lavone were friends for over 65 years.

Friends and family were the focus of Betty’s life. She was very proud of her architect husband, Leon and her sons, Mike and Kevin. Betty and Leon anchored their lives around holiday gatherings at their home, weekends with extended family at their cabin in Moose Lake and spent many years enjoying the warm weather of Tucson, Arizona during the cold Minnesota winters.

Betty loved Mike’s wife Vicki and her three grandchildren: Kristy Beissler (Dave), Chad Simich (Kelly) and Lena Motz (Jim). She cherished her time with all of them them and worked hard to spoil her grandchildren with baking projects, trips to the mall, rock picking at Brighton Beach, making potato burgers, butterscotch pudding, and making toffee bars. Betty loved her ten great-grandchildren too (Beisslers: Abbey, Amanda, Aaron and Amelia; Simichs: Luke and Raiyne; Motzs: Mackenzie, Maddie, McCall and Gavin). Betty’s passion was to take pictures, many pictures, of all of them. She was very proud of her family.

The entire Simich family extends its thanks and gratitude to Dr. Yankovich, the St.Lukes Hospital emergency and nursing staff, the firemen of Station #6, and paramedics for their compassion, kindness and professionalism.

Visitation will be from 2-3pm, followed by the service at 3pm, Friday, September 1st 2023 at First Memorial Funeral Chapel, 4100 Grand Ave West, Duluth.