Betty Menden passed away on November 1 ^st 2020, after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease at the age of 95.  Betty was born in Racine, Wisconsin to Floyd and Bernice Miller on October 7, 1925 and lived most of her life there.

She was married to Richard "Dick" Bayer on June 29, 1946 and they had two sons, Rick and Ron.  A few years after Dick's untimely death in 1973, she married Laymond (Gus) Menden, and gained 5 step-daughters (Linda Reynolds, Kathleen Rehahn, Michele Klofanda (Gerard), Karen Long (David), and Mary Jo Rallo (Lee).  Along with being a homemaker, Betty held many different jobs throughout her life – as a picture colorist at Zahns, a line worker at Mamco, a stint at Hamilton Beach and then retired from AAA where she worked for over 25 years.

Betty was always on the move, especially after retirement.  She attended water aerobics at the YMCA into her middle 80s, was an avid movie-goer, was a member of the Racine Red Hat Society, and did many  presentations at nursing homes and schools to display and demonstrate her basket-making skills. She was an expert sewer, making many of her own clothes over the years.   She also golfed and bowled, and loved to travel, visiting many US states with "Dick and the kids", a tour of Ireland and especially her many trips to visit her son Ron in Washington State.  There they visited Seattle, the Pacific ocean and the Cascades Mountains on many occasions, usually accompanied by her sister, Joyce.

She is survived by her two sons, Rick (Carol Anderson) and Ron (Todd Peterson), two grandchildren Michael Bayer (Amy) and Katie Faris, and three great-grandchildren, Ava, Cora and Lexi.  The oldest sibling of a family of eight children, she is survived by sisters Patricia Miller, Susan Miller and Yvonne Craft and brother Jim Miller, and many nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her husband (Richard Bayer, Sr) a brother, Jerome Miller, and two sisters, Joyce Andersen and Donna Schust.

Private graveside services will be held at Holy Cross Cemetery, where she will be buried next to her husband, Dick.  A memorial service will be held next summer as a celebration of her life.  Details will be relayed to family and friends as the date and location are finalized.  In lieu of flowers and in memory of Betty, the family asks that donations be made to Alzheimer's Disease Research.