GENESEO, Ill. – Elizabeth J. “Betty” Holmstrom Drefchinski, 69, of Geneseo, Ill., passed away Sunday, December 2, 2012, at Hammond Henry Hospital Long Term Care Unit after a 7-year courageous battle with ovarian cancer. A memorial service celebrating her life will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 9, 2012, at First Lutheran Church, Geneseo. Rev. Dr. Arthur Bergren will officiate. Visitation for Betty will be 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the church. Per her requests cremation rites have been accorded and inurnment will be at a later date. Memorials may be left to Ovarian Cancer Research or First Lutheran Church, Geneseo. Betty would also like all women to be more aware of ovarian cancer which is a silent killer.

Elizabeth Jane Peterson was born February 5, 1943, the daughter of Wilbur M. and Elizabeth J. Harsha Peterson in Moline. She graduated from Orion High School in 1961 and started work at John Deere Company in Moline immediately after. She quit work to marry Roy Holmstrom in April 1963. They had three children and later divorced. She was married to Michael Drefchinski in June 2005. Betty worked for several years at Family Medical in Geneseo and then at John Deere Health in Moline from which she retired in 2006. She later worked part-time at Guzzardo’s Hallmark store in Geneseo. She was a member of First Lutheran Church in Geneseo and belonged to a Bible study group there. She loved living in the country most of her life and when she was a child she enjoyed hunting and fishing with her father and riding her horse. Her family and grandchildren meant everything to her. She loved attending as many of their activities as she could. She and Mike loved to travel to California and Yosemite National Park and to visit their children in Albuquerque, N.M., and the Atlanta area.

Betty is survived by her husband. Mike; two sons, Tim (Sherry) Holmstrom, Atkinson, Ill., and Chris and his wife of Canton, Ga.; one daughter, Angela (Scott) Himmelman, Geneseo; two stepdaughters, Michelle Kurth, of North Carolina, and Suzanne Drefchinski, Albuquerque; eight grandchildren, Christopher Bisom and Shane and Autumn Holmstrom, Atkinson, a grandson and granddaughter of Canton, GA, and Drew, Sydney and Hannah Himmelman, Geneseo; two step-grandchildren, Joshua Kurth and Nick Drefchinski; and one niece and one nephew.

Betty was preceded in death by her grandparents, parents, sister, Shirley Thompson, brother, Forrest Peterson, and stepdaughter, Amanda Martinez.