Betty Lou (Friend) Niedergeses, 105 yrs. old, of Sioux City, Iowa passed away on Monday, November 10, 2025 with her family at her side. Visitation will be at the Waterbury Funeral Service of Sioux City from 5-7 p.m. with a vigil at 7:00 p.m. and rosary to follow. Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, November 21, 2025 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church with burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery.

Betty Lou (Friend) Niedergeses, born at home to Sarah Nevada (Heskett) and Richard Nason Friend on January 26, 1920, lived in this same house all of her 105 years, 9 months and 25 days until she died on November 10, 2025 after a short stay at Mitchell House Hospice.

She attended East High School, graduating with honors midyear in 1936; she went on to earn her bookkeeping certificate at NBT with subsequent employment by Friend Pike Sheet Metal and Roofing Company. Betty met George Thomas Niedergeses at the USO during WWII where Betty made doughnuts for the airmen on Friday nights. They were married at St. Jean’s Catholic Church in Sioux City on May 11, 1946.

While raising three daughters and three sons, she enjoyed a semi-career volunteering as a Girl Scout Leader for her daughters’ troops. She led them in outdoor camping, sewing, cooking and making marionettes. George also benefitted from her help with the Boy Scout troops and the Blue & Gold Banquets. She loved sewing clothing and costumes for her children. Generations of children made sure, every year, to ring the Niedergeses’ doorbell on Halloween night to be treated with her homemade doughnuts.

During the second chapter of her life, after George passed in January of 1982, she enjoyed reading, sewing, watching golf, attending Elderhostel events, delving into genealogy research which led to traveling to visit ancestral gravesites and recording it all in family history booklets.

She dutifully knitted Christmas stockings for her children then later knitted one for each of her children’s spouses and subsequent grandchildren. She was an excellent back-seat driver (every route was etched in her memory and made known to the driver). Other family memories include dancing as the Sugar Plum Fairy at Christmas time and repeatedly saying, “Close the mirror door!”(to avoid heating the upstairs). Betty always had whipped cream cake for her birthday, enjoyed spending summers at Okoboji and going on family vacation trips to the in-laws in Tennessee. Cookies, ice cream, cheese cake and fruitcake were always favorites and we can’t forget how much she loved winning at Scrabble.

She is survived by her children: Sara (Paul) Hirschman, Richard (Vicki Keller) Niedergeses, Mary Catherine (Dave) Neal, Thomas (Linda Barnum) Niedergeses, Jane Simonds and William (Terri Cogley) Niedergeses, grandchildren: Rita, Helen, Maggie, Joe, Kate, David, Ben, Joe, Joel, Anna, Mark, Eric, Lindsay and Lisa, great grandchildren: Cassie, Kara, Ella, Owen, Alex, Eden, Cora, Lucius, Gabriel, Henry, Frances, George, Jonathan, Nevaeh, Molly, Marciana, Reagan, Alice, Calvin, Lauren, Isaac and Sam, and great great grandson Everett.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband, parents, siblings, son-in-law Rick Simonds and great-granddaughters Elizabeth Grace and Judith Mary.