She retired as an operator after almost 40 years in 1994. She went to work as an operator for Intrastate Telephone Company and several other companies, including Centel, Sprint and Gallatin River Telephone Companies, all in Galesburg. She attended Brown's Business College in Galesburg.
Betty graduated from Galesburg High School in 1956. She was preceded in death by her parents, five brothers including an infant twin brother, Robert Bean, Glenn Bean, Clarence Bean, Vernon Bean, and Donald Bean, and two sisters, Joyce Bean and Helen Johnson. Surviving are two daughters, Kimberly (and Richard) Jensen of Galesburg and Mary Main of Oneida, Illinois, two stepchildren, Steven (and Debbie) Dawson of Pearland, Texas and Rhonda (and Steve) O'Dell of Hampshire, Texas, two sisters, Barbara (and Robert) LaFollette of Galesburg and Wanda (and Jim) Parrish of Ohio, four grandchildren, five great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. He preceded her in death January 24, 2002. She later married Howard Lee 'Butch' Dawson, September 16, 1975, in Wataga. She married Charles Wesley Malcolm in 1959 in Wataga, Illinois.
She was born October 28, 1936, in Abingdon, Illinois to Tecumseh Guy and Maggie (Gates) Bean. Wednesday, September 13, 2023, at Marigold Health Care Center, Galesburg. Dawson, 86, of Galesburg, Illinois died 5:47 a.
