Jacob (Cr) Betty Roma

**Fast Facts**
Type of person	Individual
Date of birth	1928
Place of birth	Crystal Brook
Principal occupation	Teacher
Date of death	2018
Place of death	Southern Cross Homes, Bella Street Gawler SA

Betty Roma Jacob was elected as Gawler Councillor for Carleton Ward 1985 to 1989 and was a Gawler Alderman from 1989 to 1993.

Betty - Roma - Klopper was born in Crystal Brook, South Australia - and was the youngest of 5 girls.

Tragically, their mother Naomi Jessica Klopper (n.Sullivan) died at the young age of 31 and, as Betty was only 19 months old at the time, she was raised by her aunty in Snowtown, South Australia. Betty attended school in Snowtown where she became head perfect and finished her secondary school education at Adelaide High School in 1945. She then studied Nursing and began training at Gawler’s Hutchison Hospital in 1948 when she was 20 years old. During this time she met Gordon Jacob, a local Gawler lad who had just returned from serving in the Navy after the second world war and was starting “Jacob’s Fashion Store” - a drapery shop in Murray Street of Gawler.

Betty and Gordon fell in love and were married in 1949. Soon after they began building the family home at 42 East Terrace Gawler East and during the 1950s, had 3 children - Susan, Peter, and Michael. Betty helped out in the shop while raising the kids and towards the end of their secondary schooling, she decided to go back to study and in 1970 obtained a first class honors degree in Theology. This was then followed by a Diploma in Secondary School Teaching in 1974 and then taught at Gawler High School. However, her teaching prospects were cut short when, in 1977 at the age of 49, she contracted breast cancer and survived - probably through sheer determination. After her recovery, Betty became actively involved in the outreach department for the Anti-Cancer Foundation.

Then, a few years later, her husband Gordon Jacob contracted lymphoma and sadly died in 1983 aged 58 - Betty was 55. Betty then focussed her eﬀorts towards the local community and in 1985 was elected to the Gawler town council where she served two terms as a Councillor and an Alderman until 1993.

During this period she was directly involved with reducing heavy vehicle traﬃc in Murray Street, improving the taxi service, introducing Neighbourhood Watch Programmes and was an advocate for implementing the Gawler ByPass and even bringing McDonald’s to Gawler (although that probably wasn’t such a good idea). Betty continued to live in the family home for the next 20 years enjoying her own company. She traveled extensively to Europe and North America, attended to her garden and welcomed visits by friends and family with a growing number of grandchildren.

Betty was a strong, determined and intelligent woman - a loving wife and a dedicated mother. She had a keen sense of humor, bordering on Monty Python, which stayed with her until the end - as did her willingness to share her brutally honest opinions on pretty much everything to whoever wanted to listen (and even if you didn’t want to listen).

She passed away peacefully in her sleep on the 9th of August 2018 - a few weeks after her 90th birthday. Mother of 3 and grandmother of 8, she was much loved and will be sadly missed and well remembered.

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