Betty Slusher Womack Coslet

Betty Slusher Womack Coslet, 89, passed away June 20, 2012. She was born on Sept. 12, 1922, in Waverly, Mo., 60 miles east of Kansas City, Mo. She attended Waverly Public Schools and Central State University in Warrensburg, Mo. At the beginning of World War II, she taught in a one-room school for the handsome salary of $60 per month. Beginning in 1942, she joined the Defense Brigade and worked at the Remington Arms Manufacturing Plant in Kansas City as an inspector of ammunition. On Sept. 12, 1942, she married Leonard Lee Womack in Kansas City, where they lived for the next seven years. In 1949, they moved to Springdale, Ark., where Lee owned an insurance agency. Betty attended the University of Arkansas, where she completed her bachelor of science in education in 1962 and her master's degree in science in 1970. In 1962, she began teaching science at Springdale Junior High School, and in 1970, she and Lee moved to Edmond, Okla., where Betty accepted a position teaching science at Putnam City Junior High School, where she taught for 11 years. In 1981, she accepted a teaching position at Edmond Sequoya Middle School. Betty retired from teaching in 1983. While teaching at both Putnam City and Edmond, she was named "Teacher of the Year." Two years after Lee's death, she met childhood friend, Leslie Coslet at their 50th High School Reunion in Waverly. Leslie and Betty were married in February 1990, and in 1991, they moved to Epworth Villa. Leslie died in February 1996 and is buried in St. Charles, Mo. Betty was a Girl Scout, Brownie and Cub Scout leader, a member of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church, United Methodist Women, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Arkansas Alumni Association, American Association of University Women, the Oklahoma retired Educators Association and a lifelong avid Democrat. She often said that she was "proud of being a Missourian by birth and a Razorback by the grace of God." Betty was also a die-hard Oklahoma State fan! She was preceded in death by her father, Lester C. Slusher; and mother, Bessie Larkin Slusher; brothers, Larkin Slusher, Calvin Slusher and Donald Slusher; husband, Leonard Lee Womack; and husband, Leslie Coslet. She is survived by her daughter, Beth Womack Area and her husband, Ron, of Huntington, W.Va.; son, John Calvin Womack and his wife, Becky, of Stillwater, Okla.; grandchildren, Amy Area Maxwell of Chattanooga, Tenn., Melissa Area Shaw of Ada, Okla., Stuart Matthew Womack of Conway, Ark., Dr. Bryan Lee Womack of Oklahoma City and Mary Elizabeth Womack Mach of Norman, Okla.; and great-grandchildren, Haden Lee Maxwell and Abigail Kinsley Shaw. Graveside services will be held at Bluff Cemetery in Springdale, Ark., on Saturday, June 23, 2012, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Free to Live Animal Rescue, P.O. Box 5884, Edmond, OK 73083.