Sedalia lost one of its finest this past week with the death of Betty Hopkins, 93, on Monday, Dec. 11. Hopkins was known in the community as an educator, humanitarian, and international ambassador.
Her funeral services were on Sunday, Dec. 17, at McLaughlin Funeral Chapel, and Jason, David Michael, Doug Curry, and Dr. Doug Kiburz presented eulogies for her.
Jason Curry noted Hopkins was more than an ordinary person.
"Betty was not just a positive influence but a sounding board for everyone, offering support and encouragement in both wins and losses," he noted. "I found peace in confiding in her, knowing that my life stories were safe within her compassionate heart. Her ability to uplift and make sure that every conversation ended on a positive note is a testament to her unwavering kindness and legacy."
Kiburz said Hopkins "was the ultimate international diplomat to the world. If the world could see all Americans the way they saw her, it would put us all in a more favorable light.
"Not all who wander are lost," he continued. "Betty had the wanderlust, and wherever she taught, wherever she explored, she was a missionary of kindness and compassion. … Betty was the consummate advocate and example of continued education and, as Ben Franklin advised, reinventing ourselves every so often."
According to her obituary, Hopkins was born April 6, 1930, in Kansas City to the late Dr. Garnett and Mayme Klink Hopkins.
She attended school in Sedalia and graduated from Smith-Cotton High School in 1948. She graduated from Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg and became a medical technologist at Research Hospital in Kansas City.
In 1961, Hopkins began teaching high school biology and physiology at Smith-Cotton. In 1966, she earned a master's degree from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her teaching career continued for the next 34 years, which included 12 years as a teacher in Germany working for the Department of Defense. She received a grant from the National Science Foundation to teach in Austria. In 1976, Hopkins became a member of the AFS teacher exchange program, enabling her to teach in Africa, Thailand, and China.
When she returned to the United States, Hopkins worked at the YMCA in Estes Park, Colorado, and Silver Bay, New York, for the summers. While working at the YMCA Convention Center, she met a young man named Nicholas Musyoka from Kibera, Kenya, Africa. She continued to correspond with Nick, learning more about Kibera's conditions and the efforts required to help with the living conditions of that area.
Bob Satnan, communications director for Sedalia School District 200, said he remembers meeting Hopkins when he was the editor of the Sedalia Democrat. She told him about Musyoka, and Satnan wrote an article about him.
"Betty Hopkins would come see me at the Democrat when I was the editor to share story ideas," he noted. "She was very plugged into the community and wanted to help us 'share the good' that was happening throughout Pettis County.
"We served on the United Way board together for a while, and she would agonize over funding allocations because she always wanted to give the agencies all that they asked for," he continued. "Betty pitched a story about a young man from Africa who rose from living in a Nairobi slum to earn a doctoral degree. She said she had 'sold some African art and trinkets' he would send her, and she would send back the money to help him with living expenses. It wasn't until I connected with Nick Musyoka that I found out how helpful Betty had been to someone she barely knew."
Musyoka sent a tribute for Hopkins's funeral.
"Since meeting Mum Betty, she has played a very important role in my life, my family's and my educational journey through financial support and encouragements," he wrote. "She has always referred to me as her African Child, and it was, and still is, a great honor and a blessing."
Through Hopkins's support, Musyoka was able to receive his Master's and Doctorate degrees. He added that in 2020, he and his wife had a daughter and named her Betty in honor of Hopkins.
While in Africa, she saw the great need for clean drinking water. She heard that Rotary International's next big project was to dig a well for the world's rural areas where water is in short supply. Hopkins brought the project to her local chapter, and they donated enough to get a well dug.
She traveled to Niger with Rotary International as part of the Polio Plus campaign to eradicate polio.
Satnan also mentioned how Hopkins helped create the Sedalia FIT program with Ed Watkins.
"Her inner teacher was ever present; her work with Ed Watkins to promote the Forty-hour Internship Tryout program helped make the program a reality here, and it has helped many students find their calling in life," he said. "We will never see another like Betty Hopkins, but we are so fortunate that she was on our side for so long, always focused on how to make our community a better place."
Hopkins's sponsorship and volunteer activities include the Red Cross, Children's Therapy Center, Boys and Girls Clubs of West Central Missouri, Trail's End, Liberty Center, Bothwell Regional Health Center, State Fair Community College scholarships, Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, Washington Elementary mentoring, Sedalia Symphony, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia FIT, United Way of Pettis County, Girl Scouts, and Rotary International.
Hopkins is survived by her friends, David and Emma Curry, and their children, of Sedalia, who looked after her. She was preceded in death by a twin brother, William G. "Bill" Hopkins, and her brother, Dr. Thomas S. Hopkins.
Faith Bemiss-McKinney can be reached at 660-530-0289.
