Betty Cousins Laake, 84, of Kingwood, died Sunday, January 24, 2010, in Porter, Texas.

A native of El Campo, Betty was born May 17, 1925, to Robert L. and Julia (Brown) Cousins.  She grew up and attended school in El Campo with her brothers and sister and graduated from El Campo High School.  Betty worked for a short time, then married her husband of sixty-three years, Paul Ernest Laake, on August 31, 1946. The couple had three daughters.

In the early family years, Betty meticulously made all of the dresses that her daughters wore.  She would sit at the sewing machine for hours, making each dress three times.  Her husband, Paul, liked to say that she made the dresses just so she could parade them down the aisle to sit in the front pews for all the church to appreciate her handiwork and her perfectly groomed stair-step daughters.  Nephew, Bill Cousins, remembers the oatmeal cereal boxes that his family saved, so that Betty could make pill box hats out of the tops to match each dress.

Betty liked to pack a picnic lunch on weekends of fried chicken and all the fixings, and drive into the country and stop at a roadside park in the Piney Woods to see the dogwoods blooming in the spring, although her favorite season was autumn.  On one Sunday trip, the family dog was left behind at the roadside park.  When the three daughters realized that Pupsy had been left behind, after lots of tears and some fast driving by Paul, they found Pupsy waiting right where they had left her. 

As the girls grew up, their obedience to dressing like triplets waned, and Betty found a new career in which to immerse herself.  She went back to school and became a nurse like her sister Mary.  True to her nature, she was at the top of her class and became a favorite nurse to Sister Fatima, the head nurse of the pediatric wing of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont.  Sister Fatima would assign Betty to the some of the toughest patients and children that she knew needed TLC.  Betty would take special care to tend to her patients, taking in ribbons and bows for the girl’s hair and working after hours many days to provide that extra special attention that she knew helped with the healing process. 

Betty and Paul moved to Houston after the death of their oldest daughter, Kathy.  Betty worked in hospitals in Houston, but never quite found the level of care up to her standards.  She moved into home care nursing and found the perfect niche in taking care of an aging son and his mother.  She quickly became the managing nurse for the family, and cared for both mother and son until their respective deaths. 

Her care giving continued with her grandchildren.  She attended her daughters, Susy and Cookie, at the birth of each grandchild.  Even though she did not like to leave Paul for any period of time, she would stay with her daughters as long as they needed her, cooking, cleaning and cheerfully pampering her son-in-laws while tending her daughters and grandchildren.

Betty was affectionately known as Nanny by her four grandchildren.  When they stayed with her, she would start the day at the breakfast table with coffee milk.  On holidays, she always had prepared for the arrival of her grandchildren with numerous homemade goodies, fudge, cinnamon twists, peanut butter cookies and chocolate sheet cake.  Betty was most famous for her German chocolate cake.  Lauren remembers her as being vivacious and playful, enjoying a game of hide and seek with Christie, Michael, Lauren and Aaron as much as they did.

Betty was always available to help her daughters with the household moves, painting rooms, organizing kitchens, sewing for nurseries and babysitting.  She could accomplish in half a day what it took most people a full day to accomplish.  She liked to lend a helping mode with her family, friends and neighbors.  Her nursing skills served her well while taking care of her sister Mary through several surgeries and illnesses.  When she wasn't helping others, she was working on her handwork.  She took up crewel and kept the family in handmade pieces, her favored country casual style that commemorated a birth, or expressed her positive outlook in life.

Betty was happiest in her role as caregiver, from caring for her diabetic mother in the early part of her married life, through Betty’s professional nursing career.  With her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2001, she became the one in need of care, and Paul first filled that role.  When it became apparent that he would need help with her illness, they moved to Kingwood to be near their youngest daughter.  Susy and her husband Tommy took on the role of children taking care of both his mother and helping Paul and Betty.

As Betty’s illness progressed, Susy and Tommy helped Betty and Paul through all the changes needed to provide the best care.  Cookie joined the Alzheimer’s Association as a volunteer and board member, and maintained her association for the last nine years to stay informed of the latest in medications and treatments.  In Betty's final days, she was lovingly cared for by her husband Paul, who looked after her like a mother hen, and her daughter Susy, who assisted Peter and Mary in their personal care home, Caring Hands.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Kathy Lynn Laake; her brothers, Robert Cousins and Jack Cousins, and her sister, Mary Wiegand. 

Her survivors include her husband, Paul; children, Carol Phillips of Austin, and Susy Smith and husband Tommy of Kingwood; grandchildren, Lauren Phillips of Austin, Aaron Phillips of San Diego, Calif., Michael Smith and wife, Emily, of Temple, and Christie Smith Parsons and husband Joey, of Amarillo, and great-granddaughter, Bella Grace Smith.

Memorial contributions may be made to Alzheimer's Association Capital of Texas Chapter, 3429 Executive Center Drive, Suite 100 Austin, TX  78731.