Betty Jane Rolling, age 84, of Arco, MN, passed away peacefully surrounded by family, Monday, February 16, 2026, at the Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 AM Friday, February 27, 2026, at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 111 N Sherwood St, Ivanhoe, MN 56142. Visitation will be held on Thursday, February 26, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church and will resume one hour before the Mass. A prayer service will be held on Thursday, February 26, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM with a Rosary at 7:30 PM at the same location. Burial will be in the Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Cemetery, Ivanhoe, MN. Houseman Funeral Home, Birk Chapel in Hendricks, MN is entrusted with the arrangements.
Betty Jane Rolling was born on September 27, 1941, in Denver, CO, to Kenneth and Mary Margaret “Marguerite” (Cole) Thompson. Her father worked at Midland Federal Savings and Loan and her mother worked at Capital Life Insurance Company. They loved life by the mountains and Betty would “miss” them throughout her life. Betty graduated from St. Francis de Sales Catholic High School, Denver, CO, in 1959, and from Mount Saint Scholastica College, Atchison, KS, with a B.A. in English in 1963. Trains were big in those days and Betty would take the train from college in Kansas to home in Colorado. Her college years were full of opportunity. As Senior Class President, Betty met and introduced Maria Von Trapp to the student body and heard Mother Teresa speak on campus. She liked to invite international students home for Christmas break and home cooked meals. Many became life-long friends and she stayed in touch with her international family from Mexico to Panama, from Germany to Thailand. Following college, Betty’s passion for Christ, love of teaching and skill in English directed her steps. She taught at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Shawnee, KS, for a year. After earning an M.S. in English Language and Literature at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), she returned to Mount Saint Scholastica College to teach in the English Department for two years. Betty loved literature and would help people improve their reading and writing skills throughout her life. Betty stayed in the Kansas City area to work as a text editor at Waddell & Reed before making a big decision to follow her sister, Dorothy, and serve as a Catholic lay missionary in Central America. In 1969 she flew to Panama and began work for a group of religious sisters and the local bishop in the Chiriquí Province and cities of Concepción and Solano. The sisters had the one TV in the area so it drew the Americans there together for fellowship. It was then Betty met another lay missionary, Joseph “Joe” Rolling from Ivanhoe, MN. Following service in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Peace Corps, Joe was teaching agriculture to young people at a Catholic vocational school, Colegio Agrícola San Benito, in the mountain town of Volcán, Panama. On the night Joe proposed to Betty, he chose a beautiful mountain location but forgot about the local government curfew. She said yes as they were surrounded by the local police. Life was their adventure. They were united in marriage at Cure of Ars Catholic Church in Overland Park, KS, on October 25, 1969. Back in Volcán, Joe and Betty started their family and continued teaching, making friends, and developing their taste for fresh-ground dark-brew coffee. Friends, kids, grandkids could rely on Betty rising between 4 and 5 am to make a delicious cup of hot coffee up to her last day. In 1974 Joe and Betty moved to work in the American run Panama Canal Zone. While living in Gamboa they could watch the ships passing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canal’s famous shipping locks. In 1976 the desire to be close to family led them to move to Lincoln County, MN, and commence a hog farm operation outside Arco, MN. In 1985 she helped convert the business to a mushroom farm, then Betty returned to the classroom as a teacher’s aid in Ivanhoe Schools where she touched the lives of many students. From 1997 to 2002 she became a full-time caregiver for her mother. Betty then worked at Divine Providence in Ivanhoe, founded by the much-loved Schoenstatt Sisters, serving the residents with humility, patience and gentleness. Betty used her creative gifts, directing 4-H plays, creating unique birthday piñatas, writing poetry, and arranging flowers for church. As well as being active in the Altar and Rosary Societies, she served as a CCD teacher, and as a sacristan setting up for Mass and cleaning the special linens used on the altar. Betty loved classical music and had a beautiful voice. She sang in Ss. Peter and Paul choir and as a cantor until she died. She was passionate about defending the unborn, working in MCCL, fundraising for Birthright, and writing many letters to the editor to promote the dignity of every human life. Betty enjoyed crocheting and gave dozens of beautiful baby blankets to grandchildren and friends. She delighted her grandchildren with ice cream, pizza and pasta salads, showering them with her stories, her hand-written notes, her hugs and kisses, and her gentle, beautiful smile. She was proud to see her children and grandchildren attend and work for her alma mater and supported all their Catholic pro-life and missionary activities. Betty loved her more than fifty years on the family farm, surrounded by her children, trees, flowers, birds, and animals. She loved the Minnesota prairie and the beauty of the changing seasons. She would often say, “Come look at the sunset. Come see the full moon.” She would text pictures of her hibiscus flowers remembering her of days in Panama. She loved her family and neighbors and, as a prayer warrior, interceded for them throughout the day. Most of all Betty loved God with her whole heart, the Eucharist, saints, and praying her Rosary. She encouraged her family to find beauty and be joyful, to be missionary disciples for Jesus Christ. She was a mother and a second-mother to many. Blessed be her memory.
Betty is survived by her sister, Dorothy Schabilion, Iowa City, IA; her children: Father Brendan Rolling, Ivanhoe, MN, Carrie (Joseph) Miller, Lonsdale, MN, Kenneth (Alecia) Rolling, Lucedale, MS, Michael (Heidi) Rolling, Atchison, KS; grandchildren: Theresia (Joseph) Rice, Anthony, Elizabeth, William, Maria and Julia Miller; Alithia, Nikolaus, Theodore, James, Magdalena, Louis, Conlin, Alton and Richard Rolling; Annabelle, Louisa, Sophia and Edie Rolling; great-granddaughter: Honora Rice; sisters-in-law: Shirley Rolling and Andrea Schmidt. She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Joseph; sister, Mary Margaret; in-laws, Paul and Alice Rolling; brothers-in law, Theodore, Henry, Thomas, Richard; sisters-in law, Alice Lipinski, Mary Ann Heins, Sister Cecilia Rolling, OSF, Regina Fox, and infant grandchildren.
