May 26, 1945 – August 30, 2025
Bettie Swiontek died August 30, 2025, following a battle with cancer.
She was born Elizabeth Adams Robuck on May 26, 1945, in her mother’s hometown of Fayette, Missouri. She lived with her parents, Earl Adams Robuck and Sue Mason Robuck, and her younger sister, Susan Lee Robuck, in Joplin, Mo. until 1955, when they moved to Mission Woods, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo.
Bettie married Jim Nielsen, and they had a son, David, in 1963. Following a divorce, Bettie attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), graduating with an education degree. She taught fifth grade in Edgerton, Ks. for several years. After leaving teaching, she worked for many years at the Social Security Administration in Kansas City.
Later, she found a dream job working with archivists at the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection at UMKC, where she helped preserve the historical documents of important people and events in Missouri.
Working for Social Security wasn’t all bad, though. It was where she met Ted Swiontek. They married in 1990 and celebrated their 35th anniversary earlier this year.
Bettie and Ted turned a hobby into the business “All Booked Up” where they bought and sold rare books. They also purchased a huge collection of LIFE magazines, selling them to buyers around the world.
In 2009, they retired full-time to a peaceful home on the Santa Clara River in Brookside, Utah, near St. George. In retirement, they became avid cruise lovers, sailing in Europe and across the Atlantic several times.
Bettie found joy in many things. She loved music and played the guitar, organ, piano and the dulcimer. She was a faithful member of the Lutheran Church. She sang in church choirs all her life and actively participated in the Kansas City chapter of Sweet Adelines with her mother. She attended concerts, operas, and theatrical performances. She loved classic movies and every kind of TV show – the DVR was likely her favorite invention.
She also loved reading, fiction and non-fiction. Not surprisingly, she loved TV game shows that required broad general knowledge. Also, not surprisingly, she appeared on one – Jeopardy with Alex Trebek in 1988.
She was a lifelong baseball fan and was taught how to keep score by her mother. She kept score at every game she attended, including the last game at KC’s old Municipal Stadium and dozens, if not hundreds, of games at Royals/Kauffman Stadium. She got a big kick this year out of finding one of her old scorecards from a Royals/Twins game in 1992 that showed Minnesota’s pitcher was “Mahomes”, now best known as the father of Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes. She bought the MLB package every year so she could watch all the Royals games from her home, and she kept score for those games, too.
She watched the Chiefs win Super Bowl IV in 1970 on TV with her family, then suffered along with the Chiefs Kingdom for the next 50 years. The team’s incredible string of success the last several years brought her so much happiness.
And we cannot forget politics. She cared deeply about democracy and our nation. She was a volunteer for the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City and shook President Ford’s hand. That was one of the few times she enjoyed associating with the GOP. A lifelong Democrat, she was a long-time poll worker on election day and helped new citizens register to vote for many years. Recent political events dismayed her, but she remained outspoken and optimistic about our country’s future.
Above all else, she was devoted to our family and its history. She became a grandmother at age 60 and relished the role every day. She was the proud keeper of our family’s genealogical records and enlivened every Mason family reunion with facts about our shared heritage. She remembers attending the 90th birthday party of her great-grandfather, whose father had been killed during the Civil War. She was also a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Survivors include her husband, Ted, son David Nielsen (Colleen), granddaughter Erika Nielsen, sister Susan Cummings, nephew Patrick McGee (Katie), and niece Kelly McGaw (Erin). Services followed by a reception will begin at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, September 6, at the New Promise Lutheran Church in St. George, UT.
Obituary published by Serenity Funeral Home of Southern Utah.
