BETTYE SNOW / KLAUSS / ROBERTS (1927-2013)

Some weeks I write about a numismatist who is famous or important. This week I will report on an obscure woman who caught the numismatic bug.

Bettye Juanita Snow was born on October 10, 1927, in Evansville, Indiana. Her parents were William Lampton Snow Jr. (1902-1966) and Amelia Winonah Lindlay (1906-1995). William was manager of the International Correspondence Schools in Evansville.

She graduated from Central High School and the Deaconess School of Nursing. She began working as a surgical nurse at Welborn Baptist Hospital. She received a Master's degree from Indiana University in Bloomington.

On July 18, 1946, she was married to John Randolph Klauss (1926-2007) in Morganfield, Kentucky. They were the parents of John Randolph Klause, Jr. (1947-2006) and William Klauss (1952-2008). John remarried in 1958. His hobbies did not include numismatics.

An article in The Evansville Press for May 24, 1961, described her, She's a little bitty thing but every ounce of her seems eminently endowed with bounce… This talented and intellectually animated little creature is also an artist, college student, historian, numismatist, choir singer, photographer. mother, author and homemaker.

She was a teacher of nursing at Rockford Community College in Rockford, Illinois. She later moved to Wausau, Wisconsin, where she met her second husband, Richard Roberts. They were married in 1973. He was the administrator of Northcentral Technical College in Wausau and died in 1985.

She died on January 6, 2013, in Kaukauna, Wisconsin.

 

In 1960 she presented a program for more than a hundred members of the Evansville Coin Club. Her topic was Paper Money of the United States, 1861-1923 using an ANA slide set. Making a presentation from the slide set would not have required advance knowledge.

In 1961 she was secretary of the Evansville Coin Club. She was one of four club members honored as Numismatists of the Year for 1961. She served until 1964.

On October 26-27, 1963, she presented an exhibit on the numismatic bug. It took the award for Best-of-Show exhibit. A picture of her was shown in the Evansville Press for October 26, 1963.

The numismatic bug was put on display at the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences.

 

The October 1963 issue of The Numismatist carried this story:

Her membership in the ANA was announced in the August 1964 issue of The Numismatist as member R52835. This was the last time her name was mentioned in the magazine.

She was mentioned in Coin World twenty times during 1961-64. She was described as an artist. author, and Civil War scholar. Several of the articles mention the numismatic bug. After 1964, she returned to numismatic obscurity.

She was mentioned in the February 18, 2024, issue of The E-Sylum for her November 18, 1964, copyright of the numismatic bug. I hope our mention here does not violate copyright rules.

Follow-up Question: Who was behind Tri-State Coin Supply Co., Inc. distributor of the numismatic bug jewelry? They were out of business by 1968.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
CATCHING THE NUMISMATIC BUG (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n07a12.html)

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