n 1925 - 2026

Former Stockton resident, Betty Lou Northway Jacobs, 101, Hays, passed away on Wednesday, June 10.

She was born February 5, 1925, on the family farm in Seward County, Nebraska, near the town of Ulysses. Her parents were Ray and Mary Anne Asbury Northway.

When she was five, her family moved briefly to South Dakota in search of work during the Dust Bowl.

Betty and her sisters attended a country school near Ulysses, Nebraska.

When they returned to Nebraska, they lived in rented house in Garrison, Nebraska. Her father found work with the WPA, laying out the streets in nearby David City. They later moved to David City, where she graduated from high school in 1942.

After graduation, she worked as a switchboard operator for Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph in David City, Nebraska. During WW2, Betty begged her parents to let her go to California. So, they drove to Columbus, Nebraska, and put her on the train to San Diego. She worked for the Navy's Payroll Disbursement Office until returning to Nebraska.

While working at a restaurant, she met her future husband, Victor Bennett Jacobs, a Kansas boy.

In 1950, she traveled to Norton, Kansas, to visit Vic’s family. She took a job at the local telephone office.

On December 3, 1950, she and Victor were married at her parents’ home in David City. They spent the first 14 years of their married life in Norton, where they had four children.

In 1964, they moved to Stockton, where they lived until retiring to Hays in 1995. During their time in Stockton, she worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone in Plainville, Farm Bureau Insurance, Celly Rupp/Stockton Alfalfa, and International Harvester.

She is survived by her children, Mary Smith of Colby and Jean Anne Sharp of Skiatook, Okla., Vicki Schulte of Hays, and Jon Jacobs of Munjor; seven grandchildren; twenty-two great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters, Catherine and Doris, her granddaughter, Crystal Sharp, her grandson, Michael Sharp, and her husband, Victor.

Memorial Services will be Saturday, July 11th, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at Hays Christian Church, 1318 East 22nd Street, Hays, Kansas 67601, with Pastor Dana Glover officiating.

Betty will be laid to rest in the Norton Cemetery at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Hays Christian Church in care of the Funeral Chapel.

Cremation under the direction of Keithley Funeral Homes and Crematory – Brock’s Chapel, 2509 Vine Street, Hays, Kansas 67601. Memories and words of comfort may be shared with Betty’s family on her tribute page via: www.keithleyfuneralchapels. com