Elizabeth S

Tanner

Tanner
Elizabeth " Bette"
Smeaton Williams

Bette Tanner passed away peacefully on October 19, 2011 at the age of 90. She was born to Charles and Amy (Bloomburg) Williams on April 8, 1921 in Kingston, Pennsylvania. After graduating form East Orange High School in New Jersey in 1939, she became a secretary for two attorneys before enlisting in the U.S. Navy Waves in Scranton, Pennsylvania in March of 1944. After completion of basic training at U.S.S. Hunter in New York, she transferred to Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa for further Navy training as a yeoman. Her duty station after yeoman school was the Navel Supply Depot at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she met and married her handsome Marine husband Harold Tanner on January 19, 1945. Bette and Harold were both honorably discharged from military service in April 1946 and settled in Toledo where they were blessed with three daughters and four grandchildren.
Bette was a member of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Toledo where she served as an usher, an office assistant, a member of several committees and as a past president of Women of St. Paul's church. Other memberships included the U.S. Waves Unit # 128, where she also served as a past president; the Women's Eighteen Hole Golf Group at Sylvania Country Club, where she was a past president; the American Legion Post # 335 of Toledo; and the Third Division Association of the U.S.M.C.
Her favorite interests included swimming, tennis, horseback riding and golf tournaments. She also enjoyed working out at the "Y" with exercises and weight lifting. Bette was an active person all of her life and enjoyed traveling to Europe, Alaska, Hawaii and most of the United Sates with her husband and two daughters. She especially enjoyed her trip with the Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. to view the many war memorials dedicated to the U.S. veterans.
Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her first child, Barbara Lee Tanner; her husband, U.S. Marine Harold W. Tanner; and brother, Robert C. Williams.
Those remaining to cherish her memory are daughters, Diane (Ted) Barnes of Perrysburg, OH and their two children, Nicholas Barnes of Athens, OH and Stephanie (Jon) LaBuz of Houston, TX and Cindy (Mike) Seaman of Vandalia ,OH and their two children, Lindsey Seaman of Vandalia and Todd Seaman of Columbus, OH. She will also be missed by numerous other relatives and friends.
Visitation will be held at the Foth-Dorfmeyer Mortuary, 3815 Sylvania Ave. (between Monroe St. & Talmadge Rd) on Sunday from 1-4 p.m. with funeral services to begin at 4. Interment will be held on Monday at 11 a.m. at Toledo Memorial Park with military honors.
The family suggests memorial contributions be made to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Northern Ohio Chapter, or to the charity of the donor's choice.
Bette's family would like to thank the staff of Waterford at Levis Commons for their kindness and vigilant care of the "dancing queen."