Elizabeth “Betty” Jeschke, 88, of Goshen, Ind., died June 27, 2018, at Goshen General Hospital. She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma six years previously.

Betty was born to Gordon and Margaret Claassen Bixel Nov. 27, 1929, in Bluffton, Ohio. She was a member of First Mennonite church in Bluffton and a graduated from Bluffton High School in 1947. She graduated from Bluffton College in 1951 and that same year married Oscar Miller of Berlin, Ohio.

Betty taught elementary school in Holmes County for 34 years, 25 of them teaching third grade at the all Amish Chestnut Ridge School between Berlin and Walnut Creek. She participated in the founding of Behalt, the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center near Berlin and the Berlin Public Library.

Betty was widowed by her first husband Oscar Miller’s death in 1989, and in 1994 married Marlin Jeschke of Goshen. In 1997, after a four-month study tour in Israel, Betty and Marlin moved to Goshen. She endowed the Religion and Science Conferences at Goshen College.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her first husband Oscar, and her oldest son, James Miller, Professor of Biology at Goshen College. She is survived by her husband Marlin, daughter-in-law Linda Miller, daughter Kathy (Willard) Fenton-Miller, son Thomas (Crystal) Miller, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, two brothers Gordon and David Bixel and their families. Also three step-children, Eric (Amy Baum) Jeschke, Margaret (Bart Miller) Jeschke, and David (Kim Rush) Jeschke, and six step-grandchildren.

A memorial service will take place Monday, July 30, at 10:30 a.m. at College Mennonite Church. Betty has chosen cremation of her remains, with ashes to be interred in Berlin beside her first husband Oscar Miller on Sept. 15, 2018.

Memorials can be given to Mennonite Central Committee Akron, Pa.