Betty Jane Randolph

Betty Jane Randolph, 92, died in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 12, 2024. She was born in Monroe, Wisconsin on July 12, 1931, to Alfred and Lillian (Morel) Buhlmann, both of whom were first-generation immigrants from Switzerland, and spent some of her early childhood living above the Swiss cheese factory owned and operated by her father.

Her parents eventually sold the cheese factory and moved to Freeport, Illinois, where she met her future husband, Eskil Richard (Dick) Randolph, and graduated from Freeport High School. Betty began studying for a Nursing degree in Madison (Wisc.), then married Dick in June 1951. In 1952, their first of five children, Susan, was born. Four boys followed Susan in the ensuing ten years.

As a result of Dick following better job prospects in the early years of their marriage, Betty raised her growing family in various locations in the Great Lakes states; Upper Michigan (twice), Minnesota (twice), northern Ohio, and finally in Lower Michigan (Midland) 

Once her fifth child was in school, she worked part-time in the late 1960s and 1970s, as a keypunch operator for a printing company, at the high school cafeteria, and as an employee of a Bank & Trust. Her youngest children claim that she found the cafeteria job so she could keep an eye on them and her older children claim that was both true and necessary. She attended nearly all her children’s high school music and sports events, both indoors and in all manner of outdoor weather in Michigan.

Betty enjoyed playing piano, walking and hiking, reading, crossword and picture puzzles, and card table games with family and friends. She loved singing in choirs and was an accomplished vocal soloist. She loved sweet desserts (always in moderation) often keeping homemade cookies in a ceramic cookie jar in the kitchen. When attempting to sneak a cookie before supper, her children inevitably heard, “Get out of that cookie jar!” emanating from another room in the house. As a mother of five, Betty had eyes in the back of her head and ears in every room, long before the technology that helps mothers listen today.

She enjoyed the family summer house on a small lake near Baldwin, Mich., and the retirement home she and Dick built in Townsend, Tenn. These homes enabled outdoor activities and gatherings of family and friends that brought her much pleasure.

For her 90th birthday celebration, relatives and friends were asked ahead of the event to provide a short list of adjectives they would use to describe Betty. The top 12 words used were: Kind, Loving, Warm, Generous, Wise, Patient, Clever, Strong, Fun, Smart, Witty, and Happy.

Preceding Betty in death were her parents, Alfred and Lillian Buhlmann; her two sisters, Dorothy Goecks and Rose Schafer; her two brothers, Charles and Harry; her husband, Eskil Richard Randolph; and her son James D. Randolph.

Betty is survived by her daughter, Susan J. Kropscott (Holland, Mich.) and three sons, Stephen R. Randolph (Knoxville, Tennessee), Jeffrey S. Randolph (Manchester, Missouri), and Mark D. Randolph (Bellaire, Michigan), thirteen Grandchildren, and six Great-Grandchildren.

No memorial service is scheduled at this time. A service is being planned for later this summer in Maryville, Tennessee. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Betty Randolph to the Appalachian Bear Rescue in Townsend, Tennessee: Appalachian Bear Rescue "Room in Your Heart" Campaign.