Burnetta Elizabeth Pace

Burnetta Elizabeth Dick. "Aunt Betty," as she was known affectionately; brown hair, hazel-blue eyes, stood just 4'-10"; d/o Perry C Dick & Burnetta E Evans. Born Saginaw MI (1909). The Dick family lived in several industrial towns, her dad working for various auto manufacturers. At age 11, Betty contracted rheumatic fever while in Indianapolis IN. She went upstairs in May and didn't come down again for 16 months; had a recurrence at age 21 and stayed with her mother, who was a Christian Science practitioner. Betty graduated from Keego Harbor HS near Pontiac MI; married Sylvester Pace, "on the school house steps", she would say (June 1927). She had met him at a dance, he was a grocery store clerk. Betty & Vester lost their starter home, a tiny little thing, when the Depression hit. A factory worker put out of work, Vester began laboring at various farms, getting paid in produce. He & Betty would then use what precious gasoline they had to venture to Plymouth Rd near Northville, set up a plank on cement blocks, and sell the produce to passersby. The effort became an enterprise. Together, they owned & managed a stand on that same spot for over 30 yrs. "Pace's Place" became a landmark for travelers between Ann Arbor & Detroit. Betty ran the stand. Vester saw to purchasing & bartering, farming of truck crops and maintenance. In 1963, their new car was rear-ended at a stoplight in Toledo OH. Betty suffered long term injury to her neck & back. Unable to keep up with the demands of their stand, it was sold. The stand by then had a 150' roof and employed 30 clerks during a seven day work week. Betty had three children - Barbara Jean (1928-1998), Glenn D (1930), & Sylvia Ann (1933-1935) . Glenn's respiratory condition caused the family to begin wintering in FL. After the sale of the produce stand, Betty & Vester moved there permanently, to Palm Bay. Not long after Vester contracted cancer. His decline was lengthy, he dying in 1978. Betty removed to Asheboro NC to be near her dau. Barbara. When Barbara passed in 1998, Betty then moved to Ft Myers FL to be near son Glenn, who owned a fishing gear shop, called "Pace's Place". Betty's last years were in residences for the elderly. She died in 2005, 11 days short of her 96th birthday. The old rough-sawn sign that once told travelers they were at Pace's produce stand, hung on the wall at son Glenn's Ft Myers shop for years. -- WBD