Betty Farghum, 90

 

April 17, 1927 —
Nov. 4, 2017
 
MASON CITY - Betty J. Farghum, age 90, of Mason City, Iowa, died Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017, at the IOOF Home. 
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, with Chaplain Dave Byrd of the IOOF Home officiating. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. until time of service. 
Interment will take place at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Cresco, Iowa at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. 
Memorials may be directed to Hospice of North Iowa, 232 2nd Street S.E., Mason City, IA 50401, Humane Society of North Iowa, 2700 S. Birch Drive, Mason City, IA 50401, or the North Iowa Garden Club, P.O. Box 122, Mason City, IA 50401. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.major ericksonfuneralhome.com
Betty Jean Farghum was born at home in Cresco on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1927, to Arthur William and Lydia Alma (Weber) Wentworth, the middle of nine children. When old enough, she started Sunday school at the Baptist Church in Cresco and through her teen years at the Methodist Church in Ridgeway, Iowa.
She attended Cresco Public School through seventh grade, and then went to live with her Aunt Carrie Johnson in Ridgeway. (Her husband was deceased, and her own daughter was leaving to be with her husband, who was in the Navy.) 
Being a small town, her aunt owned the telephone company, and she became an operator on some evenings, weekends and holidays. She graduated from Ridgeway Public High School on May 17, 1945 and returned to Cresco soon after.
 Betty started working at the Cresco Union Savings Bank in November. She was there for more than three years. She married Elmer Farghum on Aug. 6, 1948 and moved to his home in Ridgeway the next February. Elmer had been working there since his discharge from the Navy. 
They moved back to Cresco when Elmer became manager of the Coryell Service Station. She soon started in the office of Goodrich & Lease Produce as a bookkeeper. She was there nine years with a midway break of a year when her second son was born. Working 48-hour weeks, she caught an opening in the Cresco State Bank, giving her more time for home and family. She was there three years before moving to Mason City in August 1963 in time to get their sons registered for school. Elmer had already been working there for a year. She became a homemaker and chauffeur.
She did a lot of embroidery work before she was married and some sewing and crafts in her later years. Her family was her life, and she and Elmer were very proud of them.
Those left to cherish her memory are her sons, James (Barbara) Farghum of Mason City and Terry (Colleen) Farghum of Katy, Texas; grandsons, Christopher (Holly) Farghum of Mason City, Nicholas (Kayla) Farghum of Everly, Iowa and Matthew Farghum of Beverly Hills, Calif.; great-grandchildren, Emma and Ava Farghum of Mason City and Payton and Sutton Farghum of Everly; sisters, Hazel (William) Walker of Cresco and Helen Fuller of Waterloo, Iowa; a brother, Roger Wentworth of Cresco; and special friend, Dale Schmitz of Basset, Iowa. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews.
Preceding her in death was her husband Elmer M. Farghum; parents, Arthur and Lydia Wentworth; sisters, Dorothy Slifka, Mary Walton and Eleanor Tupy; brothers, Floyd and Franklin Wentworth; sisters-in-law, Alma Wentworth and Lorrine Wentworth; and brothers-in-law, Robert Walton and Daniel Tupy.

Cresco Times

Phone: 563-547-3601
Fax: 563-547-4602

Address:
Cresco TPD
214 N. Elm Street
Cresco, IA 52136

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