Betty Marie Wright Kolar, 89, of Kearney, NE, died Oct. 27, 2014. 

Betty is the mother of former Hays Free Press editor, Barry Kolar, and mother-in-law to former Hays Free Press senior staff writer Sheri Sellmeyer. Both are stockholders in Barton Publications, Inc.

Services for Betty will be held in Kearney on Friday, Nov. 7 at the Living Faith Fellowship Church.

The second of four children, Betty was born in Elm Creek, Nebraska, where her parents farmed and raised their family. Growing up in the Depression, Betty, like so many others, lived without electricity or indoor plumbing and often with no functioning automobile. Betty did most of the family’s cooking by the time she was eight years old, as her mother was frequently ill.

Graduating from high school, Betty worked in the State Employment Office and met her husband, Roy. The two lived in the small town of Cushing where their two sons, Barry and Dennis, were born. 

The family moved to Roy’s hometown of Wolbach, where Betty was a regular volunteer at the Wolbach United Methodist Church.

Roy died suddenly of a heart attack in 1979, and after another 10 years in Wolbach, Betty moved to Kearney to be closer to her brothers.

In addition to her husband, Betty was preceded in death by her mother and father, Jesse M. and Grace Rumbeck Wright, her brother Deane Wright, and her sisters-in-law Eddie Wright and Shirley Kolar. She is survived by sons Barry Kolar and his wife Sheri of Nashville, and Dennis Kolar and his wife Crystal of Greensboro, NC, as well as her brothers Dale Wright and Kenny Wright and sisters-in-law Ilia Wright and Jo Wright, all of Kearney; brothers-in-law Glen Kolar and Earl Kolar and his wife Imogene, sister-in-law Helen Kolar, and numerous nieces and nephews.