Betty Jean Amack Lukas was the first of four daughters born to Chester and Vivian Duncan Amack. She was born September 6, 1927, in St. Francis, Kansas, and died March 19, 2022.
She grew up during the depression, and her father was doing his best to take care of his family during these lean years by renting a parcel of ground with a house on it and the lease would expire each year on March 1, and each March 1st they would have to find another rental. This meant lots of schools, so making lasting friendships was hard. She graduated from Cheyenne County High School in St. Francis, Kansas, and went on to Hays, Kansas, for a nine week summer session to earn an emergency teaching certificate. She taught one year at the Lawnridge District School. She then worked at Danelson Hardware for a year and then at Safeway where she worked as a butcher in the meat department.
She met Lyle Lukas while in high school and they married June 25, 1946. Lyle had joined the Navy, and Betty left for Bellingham, Washington, to be with him. From there they moved to Tacoma, Washington, where their daughter, Nancy Lee, was born in 1947. Lyle was discharged from the Navy, and they returned to St. Francis for a while, then to Colorado. While living in Vernon their first son, Rodney Charles, was born in St. Francis, Kansas, in 1949. Later the family moved to Wray where two more sons, John Edwin in 1955 and Stanley Kent in 1957, were born. Betty worked at the Yuma County Court House in the County Clerk’s office for a few years part time. She then worked at the Yuma County Abstract Office and learned to be an abstracter for Joe Graham. In 1966 Lyle and Betty started Lukas Refrigeration and they worked side by side until they retired and sold the business to their son Stan.
Betty enjoyed golfing and fishing, and four-wheeling in Arizona, and she was an avid reader; but her family was her greatest joy. As each of her children married and began their families she felt there were just simply more to love.
Preceding Betty in death were beloved husband of 71 years Lyle Lukas, her parents Chester and Vivian Amack, her sisters Phyllis Reade, Darlene Burr, and Shirley Gorman, and her brother in law William Burr.
Those left to mourn her passing are her four children and their spouses: Nancy and her husband Dwight Rockwell, Rod Lukas and his wife Dawn, John Lukas and his wife Marilyn, and Stan Lukas and his wife Chris; grandchildren: Jeff Rockwell and his wife Mandy, Andrew Rockwell and his wife Becky, Saylan Lukas and his wife Coco, Lana Rust and her husband Jimmy, Stacie Lukas and her friend Jeff Brundage, Kelsey Oakley and her husband Korey, Ryan Lukas and his wife Sally, and Brandon Lukas and his wife Ashley; great grandchildren: Jordan Rockwell and his wife Apolonia, Torrie Scheie and her husband Jacob Scheie, Zach Rockwell and fiance Rachel McPherson, Madison Rockwell, Sacora and Amanti Lukas, Raegen and Warren Rust, Gunner and Griffin Oakley, Jackson McKenzie, Kalea, Avery and Beckham Lukas, Kyler Lutz, Madelyn and Brynn Lukas; and three great granddaughters Pandora and Goldie Rockwell, and Zayla Scheie. Also surviving is her Aunt Doris Dallon, brother-in-law Ray Reade, brother-in-law Ike Gorman, and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Visitation/Viewing was Thursday, March 24, 2022, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Schmidt-Jones Funeral Home in Wray, Colorado. Funeral service was held on Friday, March 25, 2022, 10:00 a.m. at the Wray United Methodist Church in Wray, Colorado with Pastor Ben Wentworth officiating.
Interment will be held in the Grandview Cemetery in Wray, Colorado. Memorials may be sent to the Wray United Methodist Church or Hospice of the Plains.
2022-03-25