Betty Sabo eulogy, written by her husband Carl E. Sabo prior to his passing in 1999.
Betty Sabo passed from this life and returned to the arms of her Heavenly Father and her loving husband Carl Sabo on April 19, 2017, at the Canyonlands Care Center in Moab, Utah.
Barbara (Betty) Sabo was born Barbara (Betty) Berghammer on August 1, 1928, to Ferdinand Berghammer and Anna (Meixner) Berghammer in Munich, Germany. She attended grade school in Munich, after which she attended a trade school to manage and operate a shoe store. The school was bombed out in 1944, thus ending her schooling. She then worked at other jobs and helped her father in his machine shop.
Betty had a love of classical music and began listening to the radio on Sundays at a very early age. One of her favorite composers was Mozart. She was very fond of learning languages and was very proud of her ability to learn the proper pronunciation and use of the English language.
In September 1948, Barbara married Carl E. Sabo, a soldier in the U.S. Army Air Force, and in November 1948, she immigrated to the United States to join her husband, where they lived on a small farm in Cahone, Colorado.
She began her life in the United States as a homemaker and cleaned houses for the neighbors. Betty then went to work at the dry cleaners and later to the Dove Creek State Bank, where she became quite proficient at various jobs in banking. When Carl went to school in Chicago, she went to work as an IBM operator at the Federal Reserve Bank. After they moved to Moab, she went to work at the Moab National Bank and later at First Security Bank of Moab. Betty also worked as the secretary for Sabo’s Electronics and when the store closed, she worked for Muir Appraisals.
Betty was a very caring person and spent much of her life caring for older people, the infirm and the sick, including cancer patients. She spent many hours sitting with them and holding their hands. Betty began her care giving in the early 1950s, when she and her husband took care of an 87-year-old man from whom they had purchased their farm. Then she took care of her older sister who had cancer. After moving to Moab, she cared for three ladies from her home country of Germany; she also took care of her husband Carl’s mother, and then her husband. Betty was called upon many times by the Emergency Room staff so that she could translate when injured German tourists would come in.
In November 1952, Betty became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She also became a member of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, working her way to Post President and then to District President. She was a member of the Grand County Council on Aging.
Betty was preceded in death by her husband Carl E. Sabo, parents Ferdinand and Anna Berghammer, sisters Philomena Earl and Ernestine Nishizaki and her brother Helmut Berghammer.
Betty touched the lives of many and for the past two years has enriched the lives of the residents and staff at the Canyonlands Care Center. In honor of Betty and in lieu of flowers, please donate to the Canyonlands Care Center so that it can purchase items for the patio area that she loved so much.
A memorial service celebrating her life will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2017, at 11 a.m. at Spanish Valley Mortuary Chapel with interment at Sunset Memorial Gardens. A potluck luncheon will be held at Swanny Park afterwards. Please join us for our last taco on Saturday.
