Daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, teacher, baker and creator of the best baked chicken known to humankind are only a fraction of the roles played by Betty Lee (Wagner, Deimling) Junkins in her long life. Betty took her final breath in the presence of family, on May 1st, 2022, at peace at 94 years of age, prepared for her journey to come.
Betty, the eldest of the three Wagner girls, was born to Lee Henry Wagner, and Hilda Catherine Baumberger on November 23, 1927. She spent her early years inseparably tending the Wagner family farm with her adoring younger sisters Dorothy Jean (Wagner) Nutter, or “Dot”, and Thelma (Wagner) Nutter, or “Tiny”. Betty pursued a career she told the story of being drawn to from a very young age. Stylists sculpted the flawlessly suspended curls adorned by the women in her family, every day of their lives. “One day, that’s gonna be me.” She would have told her mother staring up with fascination. One day, it was. After completing her studies and returning to Milton Center, Betty opened her very first salon appropriately tucked into the front foyer of her younger sister, Dot’s, home, known far and wide as, Betty Lee’s Beauty Shoppe. In June, 1951, Betty was swept off her feet, and married C. Eugene Deimling. The handsome young couple had two loving daughters: Jeanne Deimling Johns, (Perrysburg, OH) and Debra Kay Deimling (Arlington, VA). After moving from Waterville to Rossford, OH, and Gene’s sudden passing of Leukemia in 1963, Betty became a hardworking, independent, single mother. In carving her way through single-motherhood, Betty went on to teach cosmetology at Penta Career Center for 24 years. There, she inspired hundreds of students to pursue the same dream as she, perpetuating a work ethic of meticulousness, dedication and tender kindness. Betty received letters, calls and visits from her students regularly until the final days of her life, over 30 years after her tenure.
In 1975, after her girls left for their futures away from home, Betty married her childhood friend Loy Junkins, joyfully welcoming his two sons Daryl Junkins and Scott Junkins into the family.
As their children and family grew, Betty and Loy slipped seamlessly into the role of the greatest grandparents. Betty was a stead-fast symbol of family, hard work, generosity and the healing power of kindness. She adored gardening, baking for what seemed to be the entire cookie-eating community of Northwest Ohio, and surrounding area codes. She hosted holiday dinners of 20-30 heads without breaking a sweat, chuckling through the madness. In the later years of her life, Betty travelled to Europe for her granddaughter Lauren Deimling Johns’s wedding to Mikel Cordovilla Mesonero. Betty was delicately trolleyed about the narrow streets of Vitoria-Gasteiz by her grandson Matthew Deimling Johns and newly absorbed Spanish family. Betty celebrated the joining of cultures and families, powered by her unstifled love engine, in her first time outside of the United States, at the formative age of 89 years old.
Betty sang the praise of her hardworking parents and evoked an unflinching adoration for her sisters, her daughters, son-in-law, step-sons, husbands, and grandchildren to her final days. Betty was predeceased by her parents, Lee and Hilda Wagner, her sister Dorothy (Dot) Nutter and husbands Eugene Deimling and Loy Junkins. Betty is survived by her sister Thelma (Tiny) Nutter, her two loving daughters Jeanne Deimling Johns and Debi Deimling, her devoted son-in-law Gary Johns, and two endlessly admiring grandchildren Matthew Deimling Johns, and Lauren Deimling Johns.
Betty’s family would like to thank the staff at Mercy Hospital for their care and gentle kindness on behalf of Betty.
Though she now rests in a place unseen, smiling kindly in the presence of God; like her contagious laugh, Betty’s love will echo forever in the acts of love performed by all she touched. Her endless giving and kindness will ring in the memories, in the name of love, for Betty Lee Junkins.
A viewing will held to remember Betty on Monday the 9th of May, from 4-8pm at Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home at 222 East South Boundary Street, Perrysburg, Ohio. We will gather from 10-11am on Tuesday the 10th at Zion Lutheran Church at 22 North 2nd Street, Waterville, Ohio with her formal service beginning at 11am.
