PEORIA, Ariz. -- Betty Kathleen Mullen of Peoria, Ariz., died on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009, in Peoria, Ariz.

She was born on April 2, 1925, in Parsons to Tedd and Jessie (Broadstreet) Wolverton. She grew up in Parsons and graduated from Parsons High School in 1943.

She married Dale Mullen on Oct. 29, 1944, and accompanied him to Louisiana for a short time before he went overseas during World War II. During the war, she worked for Klein's Department Store in Kansas City, Mo., and was active in the USO, greeting soldiers passing through Union Station there. After the war, she and her husband lived in Lawrence, Sunflower Village and Salina as he finished his college education and started a career as a photographer/reporter.

In the 1950s, they moved back to Parsons, where he was a photographer and later sports editor for the Parsons Sun. She was employed in Parsons at Swift and Co., the Katy Railroad offices and the office of attorney Glenn Jones. Following their move to Wichita in 1963, she worked for a firm of attorneys. In 1969, she became a self-employed transcriber of court proceedings.

Because her husband was a sports writer, she attended many games. She loved to knit and took her knitting to the games. The faster the action, the faster the needles would go. After her first great-grandson was born prematurely in Phoenix, she knitted hats and booties for premature babies and sent them to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Maricopa County Hospital anonymously.

She loved life, her family, friends, knitting and reading. She lived life to the fullest and was always there for her family.

Survivors include a daughter, Lin, and her husband, Jerry, of Peoria, Ariz.; three grandchildren, Jeff Rose and his wife, Ali, Rick Rose and Angela Rose; three great-grandchildren, Jalen Rose, Taren Rose and Jayson Cassidy; two sisters, Linda Long and her husband, Richard, and Sara Combs and her husband, Don; and two brothers-in-law, Dean Mullen and his wife, Carole, of California and Daryl Mullen and his wife, Eleanor, of Ottawa.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Dale; and a brother-in-law, Duane.

The service was Jan. 26 at Best Funeral Services Chapel in Peoria. Burial was in Resthaven Park Cemetery in Glendale, Ariz.