BETTY SOPER LED MANY ORGANIZATIONS AND CAUSES
Betty Soper gave new meaning to the cliché about an active person wearing “many hats.”
Throughout her life, some fellow Platte Countians have responded to Soper’s many efforts by giving her titles. For instance, she was volunteering as president of four service organizations at once when her friends teased her by dubbing her “Mrs. Platte County.” In 1981, the Platte County Historical Society named her “Outstanding Platte County Citizen,” an official designation.
Although her daughter, Sue Hurd Van Amburg, knew Betty Soper as “Mom,” she said she often thought of her as a “professional volunteer.”
The titles were intended to be all-encompassing, but actually could not even begin to describe Betty Nadine Soper, who died May 9 at age 88 and whose awards and honors spanned a bookshelf and filled an entire wall in her Platte City home, Van Amburg said.
The titles fall short because they only honored the volunteerism of the woman who was born in Jacksonville, Ark. in 1934. For more than 50 years, she worked alongside her husband, Don, whom she married in 1952, operating mostly motels and restaurants throughout the Northland. For those efforts, Betty may have been dubbed “Mrs. Hospitality.”
Van Amburg admits her mother’s dizzying pace left her wondering not only how she had the time, but also how the woman, whose education was limited to a high school diploma had so many talents and even became a self-taught entrepreneur. Betty downplayed her abilities, once stating that if she possessed any talent it would be to “organize.”
The couple’s early entrepreneurial efforts included ownership of a bowling alley, which they expanded into a snack bar and restaurant, in Liberty, where they lived at the time. Throughout most of their working years, the Sopers operated multiple businesses at once, each taking charge of different properties. They launched their efforts at motel ownership/operation with the purchase of the Great Plains Motel during the 1960s, located near the TWA Overhaul Base near the airport. They eventually also purchased the Siesta Motel (which they renamed the Airport Motor Inn) in Platte City. Van Amburg described her mom’s duties in the motel industry as “everything” from running the front desk to cleaning rooms.
Betty served two terms as president of the Missouri State Campground Owners Association during the couple’s years owning and operating the Basswood Resort, located six miles outside of Platte City in Platte County. This was the couple’s final entrepreneurial venture and how many area residents remember them, Van Amburg said.
The resort featured rustic log cabins, which often served as lodging for anglers and also was famously known as a place where Bess Truman once held a bridge party.
The couple received many awards from the campground association during their time owning and operating the resort. Betty served as the founding chairperson of the Platte County Travel and Tourism Council. The couple earned many awards for their operation of the Basswood RV park and campgrounds. The couple expanded the operation when they restored and built on to a metal shed they named The Party Barn and created a for-rent event/party venue. She served two terms as president of the Missouri State Campground Owners Association and was the founding chairman of the Platte County Travel and Tourism Council. The couple sold the resort about 20 years ago, Van Amburg said.
Her efforts were not limited to historical and entrepreneurial ventures. She also was an elder at First Christian Church of Platte City and served as alumni chair of the North Kansas City High School Class of 1952, where she helped organize class reunions for 44 years.
She also organized reunions for former Navy enlistees who served with Don during the Korean War. In addition, she organized many family reunions, held at the Basswood Resort.
She used her organizational abilities to serve two terms as president of the Platte City Chamber of Commerce (also a volunteer position) and was chair of the Platte County Red Cross.
Van Amburg described her mother as a history buff and evidence of her passion showed through her volunteer efforts. Historical causes included the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the Platte County Historical Society for which she served two times as president and worked in the Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum, for which she “cared deeply, according to curator Lisa Wittmeyer. (An archivist from the association provided research materials for this article.)
Betty’s interest was not limited to the museum’s“physical restoration and preservation but in its presentation of local history,” Wittmeyer said.
“All of us at the historical society and museum are grateful for her guidance and friendship,” Wittmeyer wrote in an email. Betty founded the Platte County Eleemosynary Society and Charity Ball as a fundraiser for the museum.
Wittmeyer described Betty’s involvement on the Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum Facebook page: She was “instrumental in the acquisition of the mini mansion (today’s museum). She later helped with all facets of its restoration and supply shopping to buying curtains and documenting donations of furnishings. She also assisted in the mansion’s listing to the National Historic Register.”
The tribute continued: “Through subsequent decades she helped organize events and exhibits and twice served as PCHS president. As museum curator (she retired from this position in 2018), she took a lead role in preserving the mansion and managing its operation.
In 1981, Platte County Historical Society presented Betty with the “Outstanding Platte Citizen Award,” which was later renamed as the Betty Soper Award in her honor.
Betty’s focus and drive continued throughout her life, Van Amburg said, adding that her parents traveled extensively following retirement in 2004. They traveled by RV from coast to coast, Van Amburg said.
During her 40s, Betty developed an interest in genealogy, a hobby she pursued for the rest of her life. Her interest was so keen Van Amburg described it as her “favorite sport.” Betty, an aunt and uncle conducted research before the era of computers and the internet. The trio made many trips to churches, libraries, attics, basements, and overgrown cemeteries, where their efforts eventually led to documentation of ancestors traveling from Ireland by boat to America. In fact, their genealogy was so detailed they traced their history back to 12 ancestors in the American Revolutionary War. Membership in the DAR only requires documentation of one war ancestor.
And yet, Betty’s obituary stated she considered her “greatest titles to be wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.”
Besides Van Amburg, she also had a son, Donald “Duane” Soper, and daughter Alisa Soper James, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Van Amburg added a final title when she said, “She was my ‘best friend.’”