Bettyann Haukedahl was born March 9, 1923, one of ten children, on the family farm in Audubon, Minnesota. She attended Audubon High School and played on the state championship girls’ basketball team before the family moved to Detroit in 1941. The war effort saw her join her sister Arlis as a member of the Rosie the Riveter factory, and they were the first two women in Briggs to work on the B17 bomber. There she met Frank Hoernschemeyer, an aerospace engineer on the factory floor. They were married on February 8, 1946.
They built their home in Huntington Woods in 1952 and lived there for the next 70 years, raising four children, Betty keeping two cookie jars and all the children in the neighborhood Everyone knows these cookie jars. They are very active in town and at Huntington Woods Lutheran Church. In 1998, Huntington Woods named Frank and Betty Seniors of the Year. Betty is an avid, lifelong and knowledgeable sports fan who often discusses the Tigers’ pitching rotation, current trades or rookie prospects.
She can name the starters on the Michigan State Spartans basketball team, or the win-loss records of the Spartans and Wolverines football teams. She regularly beats us at Trionimos and Tile Rummy games. In 2013, Betty died at the hands of Frank. She is survived by older sister Gertrude Stromme and four children Craig, Paul (Sue), Robert (Cathy) and Sarah (David) Bright (Sara (David) Bright), seven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. Celebration for Life will be held at Huntington Woods Lutheran Church on March 11, 2023; please call the church or visit vermeulenfh.com for the latest information. Memorials may be sent in Betty’s name to Huntington Woods Lutheran Church, 12935 W. Eleven Mile, Huntington Woods, MI 48070 or to Hospice of Michigan (43097 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302).
