Betty Olson was a champion of her adopted hometown of De Soto.
“She looked out for our community and our patrons. They were No. 1 for her,” De Soto Public Library staffer Janice Butcher said.
Mrs. Olson served as director of the library for more than half a century, and in that time became an authority on local history. She died Sept. 18 at 93.
“I was there when they gave her an award for 50 years of service to the library,” the Rev. Gene Moses said. “There are a lot of good things about this town, and she was certainly one of them.”
Mrs. Olson grew up in Middletown, Ohio, the daughter of a steel mill worker.
“Her father was never out of work – the mill never shut down – but they were poor, no doubt about that,” said her son, Gary Olson of Hillsboro.
Young Betty, the middle daughter among five, went to Anderson College in Indiana, where she met Blaine Olson.
The couple married in 1946. Gary was born five years later, and his sister, Diane Freed of Indiana, 14 years after that.
“She said she didn’t want to raise an only child, so she raised two,” he said.
In 1952, Mrs. Olson went to work as a secretary for a Hillsboro law firm, then moved on to the library in 1962.
“She never actually got a college degree, so she had to get library-certified to get that job,” Gary said. “She took night classes at WashingtonUniversity. Dad and I would drive her up and wait in the parking lot for her to get done.”
Mrs. Olson patiently nurtured the library’s growth both in size and scope.
“When she first started, there wasn’t a lot of money for the library,” said Francine Henderson, a co-worker for 16 years. “They had to close a couple of days during the week because of budget.”
Butcher, who started at the library in 2007, said Mrs. Olson was a patient teacher.
“She set a good example,” Butcher said. “If she had a temper, I never saw it. She liked to laugh, and she was always happy, always positive.”
Butcher said the Mrs. Olson worked to match library’s patrons’ needs with the proper resources.
“If someone came in and talked with her about an interest, she most often would order a book about it,” Butcher said. “She was about satisfying the needs and desires of our community.”
Henderson said that extended to more than books.
“People came in to sit and read the paper in the summer – kind of a cooling station, if you will,” she said. “That was OK with Betty.”
Mrs. Olson wasn’t fazed by technology.
“She was eager to embrace change as it came along,” Henderson said. “Computers changed everything. She did have a board she answered to, and always talked to them before deciding anything.”
Over the years, Mrs. Olson became something of a genealogy expert.
“My grandfather Olson was a student of his lineage, and I think that motivated her to look into her own,” Gary said.
She was interested in the community’s origins, too.
“She wasn’t born and raised here, but she made it a point to find out about the local history,” Henderson said.
Gary said his mother’s curious and gregarious nature helped her acquire encyclopedic knowledge.
“She was always a reader, studious, enjoyed meeting people,” he said.
The Olsons were a force in the wider community, including the De Soto Community Church of God.
“They were my youth counselors at church,” Moses said. “Betty was good at helping you to develop whatever talents you had.
“They were a team, always helping each other, always right there to encourage and support. A lot of people were influenced by the Olsons. They were wonderful examples of Christian love and leadership.”
Moses said Mrs. Olson served on boards concerning Christian education and was active for years with a missionary group.
“The old phrase, ‘Brighten the corner where you are’ – she was a living example of that,” he said.
The Olsons provided more than just spiritual assistance.
“My parents helped an awful lot of people who were tight with money and resources,” Gary said. “They helped kids who had kind of a sketchy home life, became kind of surrogate parents or mentors, helped them get through school.
“And they were never interested in any notoriety. You help people out because it's the right thing to do.”
Mrs. Olson enjoyed good health well into her early 90s, but signs of dementia had begun creeping in.
“Dad kept trying to tell us that her mental situation was not what we thought it was,” Gary said. “After she retired in 2014, the two of them spent the days together. He made quilts, worked on model airplanes, and she sat at the computer and played games and checked her email.”
After Mr. Olson’s death in 2017, Gary said the family began to understand how far his mother’s mental health had deteriorated.
“We just couldn't get her interested in much of anything,” he said. “It disappointed me that the woman I was dealing with wasn't the one who raised me.”
Mrs. Olson was hospitalized in January with the flu, followed by rehab at The Villas.
“We couldn't provide the care she needed here, so she stayed there,” Gary said. Because of COVID-19, the family could not visit.
“She couldn't understand why we weren't there,” he said.
After suffering several mini-strokes, Mrs. Olson passed away during a visit from a hospice nurse.
She leaves a broad legacy in her family and her community.
“My daughter works at the library in De Soto, and my son is a part-time librarian at a private school in England,” Gary said. “That’s not a coincidence. They grew up loving books, and Mom made sure they had them. She went to library conventions and got them signed by the authors.”
Moses said Mrs. Olson loved being a community historian.
“She loved De Soto, loved the people, and made herself available as much as she could to be an asset to them,” he said. “She was willing to put out a lot of effort to make our town a better place to live.”
“Life Story,” posted Saturdays on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.