Betty Thompson died peacefully at home in Springfield, MO, on February 14, 2021, after a many-years-long battle with aspergillosis, a rare lung infection.

Jeanie Betty Bonifield was born July 31, 1944, in Woodward, OK. She graduated from Woodward High School where she was Valedictorian, Yearbook Queen, Miss Woodward, and Drum Major. She attended the University of Oklahoma where she was an active member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and on the Dean's honor roll and President's honor roll. She was the editor of the Oklahoma Daily student newspaper, where she met her husband, Allan Thompson, after she wrote a favorable review of the campus variety show, Sooner Scandals, in which he was involved.

After college, Betty moved to Colorado and taught at Wheat Ridge High School. She then married Allan and moved with him to New York, where she got her master's degree at Queens College. Stopping through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, Betty and Allan made their way back to the Midwest and landed in Springfield, where Betty began teaching English at Hillcrest High School. She taught there for twenty years and was the chairman of the English department. Betty was a talented and gifted teacher, and when she retired in 2009, Hillcrest started the Betty Thompson English Award Scholarship, which is presented to an outstanding graduating English student.

Betty also was an adjunct professor for twenty years at Ozarks Technical Community College.

Betty was the life of the party. She loved to travel and was always up for an adventure. One of her favorite places was Red River, NM, where she could see "her mountains" and sit and listen to the babbling stream. Betty's love and support of her children was experienced by all who knew her, as she was a regular fixture at school activities, as well as a welcoming hostess with a "the more the merrier" attitude. Betty also loved OU football, reading to her grandchildren, and cuddling with her kitties.

Betty is preceded in death by her parents, Leo and Lenora Bonifield, and her sister, Barbara Brown.

Betty is survived by her husband of 53 years, Allan Thompson; her daughter Kelly Rapp and her husband, Kevin Rapp; her daughter Kimberly Goldstein and her husband, Evan Goldstein; and three grandchildren, Bennett and Avery Rapp and Baylee Goldstein.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, February 20, 2021, at the Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home at 1947 East Seminole, Springfield, MO 65804. The family will receive friends from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. beforehand at the same location.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Betty Thompson Scholarship fund (c/o Tonya Drake, Hillcrest High School, 3319 N. Grant, Springfield, MO, 65803) or to the American Lung Association, www.lung.org.