Betty Joanna Lucille Davis was the tenth of eleven children born to Rev. Harrison Hovey Davis and Vina Johns. The Great Depression plunged the large family into a couple of decades of rural poverty and struggle, and had much to do with Lucille's frugal habits and continual striving for success.
Mother Vina had to be a general in order to grow, preserve and cook food for thirteen people while making clothes and supervising the upbringing of eleven. As the family grew, each older child was assigned one of the youngest to care for. Lucille's sister Mary Mildred acted as her second mother, modeling exemplary behavior and a love of learning. When Lucille was just three years old, she was able to recite the Apostle's Creed in front of their church congregation. As she had memorized the first-grade reading book, the school authorities promoted her, unready, to third grade. It took a few years for her to catch up to her older classmates. The family suffered frequent moves, and changing schools made it all the more difficult.
Lucille felt she had been an ugly duckling who grew into a swan by her high-school years in Springdale, Arkansas. She played basketball for the school team, was voted a member of the Homecoming Court, and met Dana Exum, her future husband, while playing flag football with her older brothers.
Lucille worked hard all her life, starting with plowing fields with her younger brother and one horse, issuing checks to local farmers at the fledging Tyson food company, waiting tables, dental assisting, and working as a typist for a department store.
She married Dana Exum in 1945. She was eighteen but already two years out of high school, and he was twenty-two, not yet finished with his Stateside WW II stint in the Navy. They lived on base in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she continued to earn money. Once he was free, they followed her six sisters and their husbands out to southern California. Lucille and Dana finally settled down in Merced, California in 1949. They joined Central Presbyterian Church and made many fast friendships there. He worked for a trucking company and she became a star performer in the Merced County Auditor's office. Their two daughters were born in 1954 and 1956. She had to take a two-year hiatus from office work after the birth of the second, but was back on the job by 1959.
Lou, as she became known, had never lost her drive to learn. She began her college education by watching a class that was broadcast on local TV, reading the required books and passing exams. Merced College was established in 1962, and Lou was there from the start. She took night classes while working at the Auditor's Office full-time. Once she had finished the two years offered there, she commuted to the closest four-year college for night classes. All along, her usual academic load was 18 units per semester with a GPA of 4.0. Dana helped by keeping their daughters occupied outdoors during weekends and proofreading her class papers.
Of course, the education of her daughters was always uppermost in her mind. The theory of the times was that parents should not teach their children to read at home, so she did everything but that: from toddlerhood, Lou Ann and Mary knew the alphabet and learned all 50 United States and capitals by doing a wooden puzzle. Lou read to the girls constantly. Once they had entered school, she bought them stacks of books, and would underwrite any expense if it had to do with literacy and educational advancement.
Lou earned her teaching credential and began her career in education teaching at Plainsburg Elementary School. The night classes continued, and she got her Master's Degree in Education. She became a Resource teacher, earned an Administrative Credential, became an assistant principal and finally a principal in the Merced City Schools. She suffered a massive heart attack and a quadruple bypass surgery before retirement and went on to complete her career, retiring at age 65.
Lou's many creative talents included music. She sang in her church choir, where her strong voice was a mainstay of the alto section. She was an accomplished seamstress, winning many Sweepstakes awards in the Merced County Fair. She made beautiful centerpieces. While she didn't read sheet music for piano, she played a repertoire of mid-century popular songs grandly and with a flourish.
Lou had always been active in church, serving as a Sunday School teacher and a Deacon, singing in the choir, and taking part in social activities there. After retirement, she continued involvement there and found more ways to serve. Dana broke a hip and declined in 2008, and Lou nursed him at home until his passing in 2009. Widowhood presented challenges, as Lou faced living alone for the first time. She joined a local writer's group, where she regaled them with funny stories from her life. She also joined the United Methodist Women, who do fundraising through estate sales, and found new friends there.
Lou never lost her Great-Depression-inspired love of a bargain, and began checking out Merced's local Dollar Store for cut-rate groceries, even though her pension afforded her a comfortable living. She endured a strong-arm robbery in its parking lot but was not deterred from returning to shop. Finally, in 2017, she tripped on a low curb there and broke her shoulder. She was forced to give up driving. She rejected the idea of assisted living, and thus had to move to Logan, Utah, where her younger daughter Mary took on her care. Older daughter Lou Ann moved there in 2018, but Mary continued almost all of Lou's care, as Lou Ann was undergoing hip replacement surgeries and radiation to slow the spread of breast cancer.
Lou attended the First Presbyterian Church with Mary, and Lou Ann and husband Katsuro gave her rides to her physical therapy sessions, activities and lunches at the Senior Center, and the occasional stop at Logan's grocery outlet store. Lou Ann drove and Katsuro helped with the logistics of her walker and frailty getting into and out of the car. They were on one of their trips to physical therapy in March 2019 when a distracted driver ran a red light and T-boned the car. Lou was riding shotgun and suffered cracked ribs and crushed vertebrae, yet she recovered and resumed her activities within months.
The Covid pandemic began in early 2020, and although the state of Utah wasn't as severely locked down as some states, physical therapy was limited, socializing at church and the Senior Center came to a halt, and everyone stayed home as much as possible. Her life essentially ceased at this point. She was still pining for the life she had lost in Merced, in increasing skeletal and upper-gastric pain, and was now waiting to die. During this time she fell at home and had to undergo hip surgery while Covid still raged on, lying alone in a hospital room under the influence of painkillers, not understanding why she couldn't have visitors.
Once back at Mary's, she was able to get around the house with her walker but needed increasing amounts of assistance. She finally had a stroke one morning. Mary helped her to bed to rest with her favorite Christian radio station on, and she passed a few hours later. Her last word was "Okay."
Mary has since established a scholarship in her name, the Betty Lucille Exum Scholarship at Logan City Schools. https://www.loganschoolsfoundation.org/scholarships-1
---Biography written by Lou Ann Exum
Mother Vina had to be a general in order to grow, preserve and cook food for thirteen people while making clothes and supervising the upbringing of eleven. As the family grew, each older child was assigned one of the youngest to care for. Lucille's sister Mary Mildred acted as her second mother, modeling exemplary behavior and a love of learning. When Lucille was just three years old, she was able to recite the Apostle's Creed in front of their church congregation. As she had memorized the first-grade reading book, the school authorities promoted her, unready, to third grade. It took a few years for her to catch up to her older classmates. The family suffered frequent moves, and changing schools made it all the more difficult.
Lucille felt she had been an ugly duckling who grew into a swan by her high-school years in Springdale, Arkansas. She played basketball for the school team, was voted a member of the Homecoming Court, and met Dana Exum, her future husband, while playing flag football with her older brothers.
Lucille worked hard all her life, starting with plowing fields with her younger brother and one horse, issuing checks to local farmers at the fledging Tyson food company, waiting tables, dental assisting, and working as a typist for a department store.
She married Dana Exum in 1945. She was eighteen but already two years out of high school, and he was twenty-two, not yet finished with his Stateside WW II stint in the Navy. They lived on base in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she continued to earn money. Once he was free, they followed her six sisters and their husbands out to southern California. Lucille and Dana finally settled down in Merced, California in 1949. They joined Central Presbyterian Church and made many fast friendships there. He worked for a trucking company and she became a star performer in the Merced County Auditor's office. Their two daughters were born in 1954 and 1956. She had to take a two-year hiatus from office work after the birth of the second, but was back on the job by 1959.
Lou, as she became known, had never lost her drive to learn. She began her college education by watching a class that was broadcast on local TV, reading the required books and passing exams. Merced College was established in 1962, and Lou was there from the start. She took night classes while working at the Auditor's Office full-time. Once she had finished the two years offered there, she commuted to the closest four-year college for night classes. All along, her usual academic load was 18 units per semester with a GPA of 4.0. Dana helped by keeping their daughters occupied outdoors during weekends and proofreading her class papers.
Of course, the education of her daughters was always uppermost in her mind. The theory of the times was that parents should not teach their children to read at home, so she did everything but that: from toddlerhood, Lou Ann and Mary knew the alphabet and learned all 50 United States and capitals by doing a wooden puzzle. Lou read to the girls constantly. Once they had entered school, she bought them stacks of books, and would underwrite any expense if it had to do with literacy and educational advancement.
Lou earned her teaching credential and began her career in education teaching at Plainsburg Elementary School. The night classes continued, and she got her Master's Degree in Education. She became a Resource teacher, earned an Administrative Credential, became an assistant principal and finally a principal in the Merced City Schools. She suffered a massive heart attack and a quadruple bypass surgery before retirement and went on to complete her career, retiring at age 65.
Lou's many creative talents included music. She sang in her church choir, where her strong voice was a mainstay of the alto section. She was an accomplished seamstress, winning many Sweepstakes awards in the Merced County Fair. She made beautiful centerpieces. While she didn't read sheet music for piano, she played a repertoire of mid-century popular songs grandly and with a flourish.
Lou had always been active in church, serving as a Sunday School teacher and a Deacon, singing in the choir, and taking part in social activities there. After retirement, she continued involvement there and found more ways to serve. Dana broke a hip and declined in 2008, and Lou nursed him at home until his passing in 2009. Widowhood presented challenges, as Lou faced living alone for the first time. She joined a local writer's group, where she regaled them with funny stories from her life. She also joined the United Methodist Women, who do fundraising through estate sales, and found new friends there.
Lou never lost her Great-Depression-inspired love of a bargain, and began checking out Merced's local Dollar Store for cut-rate groceries, even though her pension afforded her a comfortable living. She endured a strong-arm robbery in its parking lot but was not deterred from returning to shop. Finally, in 2017, she tripped on a low curb there and broke her shoulder. She was forced to give up driving. She rejected the idea of assisted living, and thus had to move to Logan, Utah, where her younger daughter Mary took on her care. Older daughter Lou Ann moved there in 2018, but Mary continued almost all of Lou's care, as Lou Ann was undergoing hip replacement surgeries and radiation to slow the spread of breast cancer.
Lou attended the First Presbyterian Church with Mary, and Lou Ann and husband Katsuro gave her rides to her physical therapy sessions, activities and lunches at the Senior Center, and the occasional stop at Logan's grocery outlet store. Lou Ann drove and Katsuro helped with the logistics of her walker and frailty getting into and out of the car. They were on one of their trips to physical therapy in March 2019 when a distracted driver ran a red light and T-boned the car. Lou was riding shotgun and suffered cracked ribs and crushed vertebrae, yet she recovered and resumed her activities within months.
The Covid pandemic began in early 2020, and although the state of Utah wasn't as severely locked down as some states, physical therapy was limited, socializing at church and the Senior Center came to a halt, and everyone stayed home as much as possible. Her life essentially ceased at this point. She was still pining for the life she had lost in Merced, in increasing skeletal and upper-gastric pain, and was now waiting to die. During this time she fell at home and had to undergo hip surgery while Covid still raged on, lying alone in a hospital room under the influence of painkillers, not understanding why she couldn't have visitors.
Once back at Mary's, she was able to get around the house with her walker but needed increasing amounts of assistance. She finally had a stroke one morning. Mary helped her to bed to rest with her favorite Christian radio station on, and she passed a few hours later. Her last word was "Okay."
Mary has since established a scholarship in her name, the Betty Lucille Exum Scholarship at Logan City Schools. https://www.loganschoolsfoundation.org/scholarships-1
---Biography written by Lou Ann Exum
Betty Joanna Lucille Davis was the tenth of eleven children born to Rev. Harrison Hovey Davis and Vina Johns. The Great Depression plunged the large family into a couple of decades of rural poverty and struggle, and had much to do with Lucille's frugal habits and continual striving for success.
Mother Vina had to be a general in order to grow, preserve and cook food for thirteen people while making clothes and supervising the upbringing of eleven. As the family grew, each older child was assigned one of the youngest to care for. Lucille's sister Mary Mildred acted as her second mother, modeling exemplary behavior and a love of learning. When Lucille was just three years old, she was able to recite the Apostle's Creed in front of their church congregation. As she had memorized the first-grade reading book, the school authorities promoted her, unready, to third grade. It took a few years for her to catch up to her older classmates. The family suffered frequent moves, and changing schools made it all the more difficult.
Lucille felt she had been an ugly duckling who grew into a swan by her high-school years in Springdale, Arkansas. She played basketball for the school team, was voted a member of the Homecoming Court, and met Dana Exum, her future husband, while playing flag football with her older brothers.
Lucille worked hard all her life, starting with plowing fields with her younger brother and one horse, issuing checks to local farmers at the fledging Tyson food company, waiting tables, dental assisting, and working as a typist for a department store.
She married Dana Exum in 1945. She was eighteen but already two years out of high school, and he was twenty-two, not yet finished with his Stateside WW II stint in the Navy. They lived on base in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she continued to earn money. Once he was free, they followed her six sisters and their husbands out to southern California. Lucille and Dana finally settled down in Merced, California in 1949. They joined Central Presbyterian Church and made many fast friendships there. He worked for a trucking company and she became a star performer in the Merced County Auditor's office. Their two daughters were born in 1954 and 1956. She had to take a two-year hiatus from office work after the birth of the second, but was back on the job by 1959.
Lou, as she became known, had never lost her drive to learn. She began her college education by watching a class that was broadcast on local TV, reading the required books and passing exams. Merced College was established in 1962, and Lou was there from the start. She took night classes while working at the Auditor's Office full-time. Once she had finished the two years offered there, she commuted to the closest four-year college for night classes. All along, her usual academic load was 18 units per semester with a GPA of 4.0. Dana helped by keeping their daughters occupied outdoors during weekends and proofreading her class papers.
Of course, the education of her daughters was always uppermost in her mind. The theory of the times was that parents should not teach their children to read at home, so she did everything but that: from toddlerhood, Lou Ann and Mary knew the alphabet and learned all 50 United States and capitals by doing a wooden puzzle. Lou read to the girls constantly. Once they had entered school, she bought them stacks of books, and would underwrite any expense if it had to do with literacy and educational advancement.
Lou earned her teaching credential and began her career in education teaching at Plainsburg Elementary School. The night classes continued, and she got her Master's Degree in Education. She became a Resource teacher, earned an Administrative Credential, became an assistant principal and finally a principal in the Merced City Schools. She suffered a massive heart attack and a quadruple bypass surgery before retirement and went on to complete her career, retiring at age 65.
Lou's many creative talents included music. She sang in her church choir, where her strong voice was a mainstay of the alto section. She was an accomplished seamstress, winning many Sweepstakes awards in the Merced County Fair. She made beautiful centerpieces. While she didn't read sheet music for piano, she played a repertoire of mid-century popular songs grandly and with a flourish.
Lou had always been active in church, serving as a Sunday School teacher and a Deacon, singing in the choir, and taking part in social activities there. After retirement, she continued involvement there and found more ways to serve. Dana broke a hip and declined in 2008, and Lou nursed him at home until his passing in 2009. Widowhood presented challenges, as Lou faced living alone for the first time. She joined a local writer's group, where she regaled them with funny stories from her life. She also joined the United Methodist Women, who do fundraising through estate sales, and found new friends there.
Lou never lost her Great-Depression-inspired love of a bargain, and began checking out Merced's local Dollar Store for cut-rate groceries, even though her pension afforded her a comfortable living. She endured a strong-arm robbery in its parking lot but was not deterred from returning to shop. Finally, in 2017, she tripped on a low curb there and broke her shoulder. She was forced to give up driving. She rejected the idea of assisted living, and thus had to move to Logan, Utah, where her younger daughter Mary took on her care. Older daughter Lou Ann moved there in 2018, but Mary continued almost all of Lou's care, as Lou Ann was undergoing hip replacement surgeries and radiation to slow the spread of breast cancer.
Lou attended the First Presbyterian Church with Mary, and Lou Ann and husband Katsuro gave her rides to her physical therapy sessions, activities and lunches at the Senior Center, and the occasional stop at Logan's grocery outlet store. Lou Ann drove and Katsuro helped with the logistics of her walker and frailty getting into and out of the car. They were on one of their trips to physical therapy in March 2019 when a distracted driver ran a red light and T-boned the car. Lou was riding shotgun and suffered cracked ribs and crushed vertebrae, yet she recovered and resumed her activities within months.
The Covid pandemic began in early 2020, and although the state of Utah wasn't as severely locked down as some states, physical therapy was limited, socializing at church and the Senior Center came to a halt, and everyone stayed home as much as possible. Her life essentially ceased at this point. She was still pining for the life she had lost in Merced, in increasing skeletal and upper-gastric pain, and was now waiting to die. During this time she fell at home and had to undergo hip surgery while Covid still raged on, lying alone in a hospital room under the influence of painkillers, not understanding why she couldn't have visitors.
Once back at Mary's, she was able to get around the house with her walker but needed increasing amounts of assistance. She finally had a stroke one morning. Mary helped her to bed to rest with her favorite Christian radio station on, and she passed a few hours later. Her last word was "Okay."
Mary has since established a scholarship in her name, the Betty Lucille Exum Scholarship at Logan City Schools. https://www.loganschoolsfoundation.org/scholarships-1
---Biography written by Lou Ann Exum
Mother Vina had to be a general in order to grow, preserve and cook food for thirteen people while making clothes and supervising the upbringing of eleven. As the family grew, each older child was assigned one of the youngest to care for. Lucille's sister Mary Mildred acted as her second mother, modeling exemplary behavior and a love of learning. When Lucille was just three years old, she was able to recite the Apostle's Creed in front of their church congregation. As she had memorized the first-grade reading book, the school authorities promoted her, unready, to third grade. It took a few years for her to catch up to her older classmates. The family suffered frequent moves, and changing schools made it all the more difficult.
Lucille felt she had been an ugly duckling who grew into a swan by her high-school years in Springdale, Arkansas. She played basketball for the school team, was voted a member of the Homecoming Court, and met Dana Exum, her future husband, while playing flag football with her older brothers.
Lucille worked hard all her life, starting with plowing fields with her younger brother and one horse, issuing checks to local farmers at the fledging Tyson food company, waiting tables, dental assisting, and working as a typist for a department store.
She married Dana Exum in 1945. She was eighteen but already two years out of high school, and he was twenty-two, not yet finished with his Stateside WW II stint in the Navy. They lived on base in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she continued to earn money. Once he was free, they followed her six sisters and their husbands out to southern California. Lucille and Dana finally settled down in Merced, California in 1949. They joined Central Presbyterian Church and made many fast friendships there. He worked for a trucking company and she became a star performer in the Merced County Auditor's office. Their two daughters were born in 1954 and 1956. She had to take a two-year hiatus from office work after the birth of the second, but was back on the job by 1959.
Lou, as she became known, had never lost her drive to learn. She began her college education by watching a class that was broadcast on local TV, reading the required books and passing exams. Merced College was established in 1962, and Lou was there from the start. She took night classes while working at the Auditor's Office full-time. Once she had finished the two years offered there, she commuted to the closest four-year college for night classes. All along, her usual academic load was 18 units per semester with a GPA of 4.0. Dana helped by keeping their daughters occupied outdoors during weekends and proofreading her class papers.
Of course, the education of her daughters was always uppermost in her mind. The theory of the times was that parents should not teach their children to read at home, so she did everything but that: from toddlerhood, Lou Ann and Mary knew the alphabet and learned all 50 United States and capitals by doing a wooden puzzle. Lou read to the girls constantly. Once they had entered school, she bought them stacks of books, and would underwrite any expense if it had to do with literacy and educational advancement.
Lou earned her teaching credential and began her career in education teaching at Plainsburg Elementary School. The night classes continued, and she got her Master's Degree in Education. She became a Resource teacher, earned an Administrative Credential, became an assistant principal and finally a principal in the Merced City Schools. She suffered a massive heart attack and a quadruple bypass surgery before retirement and went on to complete her career, retiring at age 65.
Lou's many creative talents included music. She sang in her church choir, where her strong voice was a mainstay of the alto section. She was an accomplished seamstress, winning many Sweepstakes awards in the Merced County Fair. She made beautiful centerpieces. While she didn't read sheet music for piano, she played a repertoire of mid-century popular songs grandly and with a flourish.
Lou had always been active in church, serving as a Sunday School teacher and a Deacon, singing in the choir, and taking part in social activities there. After retirement, she continued involvement there and found more ways to serve. Dana broke a hip and declined in 2008, and Lou nursed him at home until his passing in 2009. Widowhood presented challenges, as Lou faced living alone for the first time. She joined a local writer's group, where she regaled them with funny stories from her life. She also joined the United Methodist Women, who do fundraising through estate sales, and found new friends there.
Lou never lost her Great-Depression-inspired love of a bargain, and began checking out Merced's local Dollar Store for cut-rate groceries, even though her pension afforded her a comfortable living. She endured a strong-arm robbery in its parking lot but was not deterred from returning to shop. Finally, in 2017, she tripped on a low curb there and broke her shoulder. She was forced to give up driving. She rejected the idea of assisted living, and thus had to move to Logan, Utah, where her younger daughter Mary took on her care. Older daughter Lou Ann moved there in 2018, but Mary continued almost all of Lou's care, as Lou Ann was undergoing hip replacement surgeries and radiation to slow the spread of breast cancer.
Lou attended the First Presbyterian Church with Mary, and Lou Ann and husband Katsuro gave her rides to her physical therapy sessions, activities and lunches at the Senior Center, and the occasional stop at Logan's grocery outlet store. Lou Ann drove and Katsuro helped with the logistics of her walker and frailty getting into and out of the car. They were on one of their trips to physical therapy in March 2019 when a distracted driver ran a red light and T-boned the car. Lou was riding shotgun and suffered cracked ribs and crushed vertebrae, yet she recovered and resumed her activities within months.
The Covid pandemic began in early 2020, and although the state of Utah wasn't as severely locked down as some states, physical therapy was limited, socializing at church and the Senior Center came to a halt, and everyone stayed home as much as possible. Her life essentially ceased at this point. She was still pining for the life she had lost in Merced, in increasing skeletal and upper-gastric pain, and was now waiting to die. During this time she fell at home and had to undergo hip surgery while Covid still raged on, lying alone in a hospital room under the influence of painkillers, not understanding why she couldn't have visitors.
Once back at Mary's, she was able to get around the house with her walker but needed increasing amounts of assistance. She finally had a stroke one morning. Mary helped her to bed to rest with her favorite Christian radio station on, and she passed a few hours later. Her last word was "Okay."
Mary has since established a scholarship in her name, the Betty Lucille Exum Scholarship at Logan City Schools. https://www.loganschoolsfoundation.org/scholarships-1
---Biography written by Lou Ann Exum
Gravesite Details
Interment 9/13/2021
Family Members
Children
