Bette Jo Benner - England Family Mortuary

$ 16.50 · 4.9 (353) · In stock

Bette Jo Benner passed away at her home in Murrieta, California at age 77 on March 7, 2019, due to complications from a recent car accident and other related issues.Bette Jo was born on April 11, 1941 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the second of four daughters of King and Eleanor Drake who moved to Southern California when she was two years old. Although her family lived in several other communities, Bette Jo first lived in Temecula on a working cattle ranch on Pala Road, which according to family lore had been used as a Butterfield Overland stagecoach stop. She attended Temecula Grammar School when it was just a two-room school house. Although she didn’t live here for long (1947-1949), it was her favorite place growing up and she found a way to return mid-life.Bette Jo graduated from Canoga Park High School where she was a senior class officer. She then attended UCLA and left school to marry and have three children. During this time in her life, she began her lifelong pursuit of religious studies and spirituality. After her children were old enough to attend elementary school, she returned to higher education earning her B.A. degree in Accounting from California State University, Fullerton and was accepted into the Beta Alpha Psi honors organization. Shortly thereafter, she obtained her Certified Public Accountant (CPA) accreditation and opened her own practice. She became a single parent in 1980 and through this work supported her children until adulthood. In the mid-1990s she lived in Pennsylvania for a few years while employed by the Beverly Hall Corporation, a non-profit religious and educational organization. It is through this organization that she met and married George Benner in 1995.At her passing, Bette was still practicing as a CPA with more than 500 clients. Besides her devotion to her clients over a period of more than forty years, she enjoyed her family, visiting national and state parks in her RV, masterful crocheting, publishing the Spiritual Venturer newsletter, reading books on religious studies and spirituality, and watching her grandsons play sports. In the last decade, Bette Jo also published several books regarding the spiritual interpretations found in the Book of Genesis, Star Wars and fairy tales.Bette was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Temecula Valley Chapter of Business Networking International, Rotary International, and the Center for Spiritual Living, Temecula Valley.Survivors include her husband, George Benner; her three sisters: Susan Janes of Huntington Beach, Katie Egizi of Valley Center, and Peggy Hicks of Hemet; her three children: Steven McFerson of Tustin, Robert McFerson of Riverside and Christine Crawford of Davis; and her two grandsons: Aidan and Rhys Crawford of Davis.A celebration of Bette Jo’s life is planned for Saturday, April 6th at 1 p.m. at the England Family Mortuary, 27135 Madison Avenue, Temecula, California 92590.In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial gifts may be made in Bette’s name to the Beverly Hall Corporation, P.O. Box 220, Quakertown, PA 18951 where she was a member of the fraternity for approximately 50 years.