Betty Louise Friend

Betty Louise Allen Cody Friend, aged 93, slipped peacefully away from this life and into her new life with Jesus on September 3, 2021. Betty was born August 21, 1928 in Ridgeway, Missouri to E. Gray Allen and Irene Taraba Allen. She, her parents, and her older sister, Helen, moved to Des Moines soon after, and she lived in Des Moines for most of the rest of her long life, graduating from East High with the class of 1946. Toward the end of her life, she shared happy childhood memories of traveling to family reunions on the farm in Missouri, playing with her many cousins and gathering around an outdoor table made from barn doors and sawhorses, laden with food prepared by her grandmother, aunts, and uncles.

Betty lived a life filled with family, friends, and faith. There is nothing she enjoyed more than being with family, especially her son Mark and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren – both from her first marriage to William Cody of Grand Junction, Iowa, and from her second marriage to Francis Friend after Bill’s death in 1964. Bill and Betty met on the campus of Drake University and married in 1949; their son, Mark Allen Cody, was born in 1954. Their family of three moved to Baltimore in 1956 when Bill accepted a position as an analyst with the Social Security Administration. Betty and Mark returned to Des Moines 8 years later, after Bill died at the age of 37, to be close to both the Allen and the Cody families. Family, always a high value to Betty, became even more precious as she went back to school as a young, widowed mom. When Betty re-enrolled at Drake, her parents helped her care for Mark, while the Cody family fully embraced both Mark and Betty in their lively gatherings on the family farm in Grand Junction. With the help and support of both families, Betty successfully finished her bachelor’s degree in education. She then worked as a second grade teacher for the next 8 years in the Des Moines Public Schools.

In 1967, Betty married Francis H. (Frank) Friend and became stepmother to his children Pat (Terry) Lovell, Don, and Bob, as well as grandmother to Pat’s toddler twins, Jim and Gary. Betty and Frank enjoyed 47 years of marriage together, serving in a variety of leadership roles as faithful members of Park Avenue Presbyterian Church and spending time with their many friends, including special friends Don and Dorothy Wait and Betty’s niece and dear friend, Catherine Cody, among many others. They loved to travel out west with Mark and took a number of road trips throughout the western United States and Canada. After Frank retired, they moved from their home on Indianola Avenue to the newly built Plaza in downtown Des Moines, where they liked to stroll on the Skywalk. They lived at the Plaza for most of the final 30 years of their married life together until Frank passed away in 2014.

Betty was preceded in death by the two loves of her life, Bill Cody and Frank Friend; her parents, E. Gray and Irene (Taraba) Allen; and her sister Helen Allen Elsen Leippart. She is survived by her much-loved only child, Mark (Anne) Cody of Williamston, Michigan; her grandchildren Kevin (Julie) Cody of Bloomington, Indiana; Bryan (Katarina) Cody of Oxnard, California; and Caitlin Cody of Lansing, Michigan; and six beloved great-grandchildren—three in Indiana and three in California: Oliver, Hannah, Sawyer, Micah, Rosalind, and Isaac Cody. Also surviving are her nephew Frank Elsen, her nieces Catherine Cody, Donna Cody, Eileen Cody, and Helen Elsen, as well as other loved nieces and nephews; and her stepchildren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren: stepchildren Pat Lovell of Indianola; Don (Paula) Friend of Des Moines, and Bob (Peggy) Friend of Albuquerque; grandchildren Gary Lovell, Jim (Jennifer) Lovell, Jessica (Regis) Friend-Cassidy, and Tanya Friend; and great-granddaughters Natalie Lovell and Chloe, Paige, Alexis, and Grace Friend-Cassidy.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Hamilton’s, with a memorial service planned at Park Avenue Presbyterian Church at a later date this fall. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Betty’s honor to the church at 3120 SW 9th Street, Des Moines, IA 50315 or to Ramsey Village Continuing Care, 1611 27th Street, Des Moines, IA 50310, where Betty, her parents, and her husband Frank received excellent and compassionate final care.

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