Mission Outreach, children team up to honor Kemper family matron, continue legacy
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
MARBLE FALLS — Growing up in the small Texas town of Derby, Anna Bess Bennett Kemper watched her mother demonstrate compassion and love, even to complete strangers. When she and her husband, George Kemper, moved their family to Marble Falls several decades ago, “Betsy,” as she was known, showed everybody that same type of love.
“Mother always had a generous heart,” said her son, Butch Kemper.
In the 1980s, when St. Frederick Baptist Church in Marble Falls created the Mission Outreach Ministry program to provide weekend meals to the elderly and the home-bound, Betsy Kemper was one of the first to help.
“She was there from the inception,” said Bessie Jackson of St. Frederick. “Whenever it was her weekend to help, she would show up and put all her heart into it. She loved people and wanted to share that love with everybody.”
On May 15, Betsy Kemper passed away at 91. But her family and the Mission Outreach Ministry family want to carry on her memory and generosity. The four Kemper siblings are putting up $30,000 in matching funds for Mission Outreach.
“It’s basically a one-for-one match,” Butch Kemper said. “For every dollar they raise, we’ll give a dollar.”
On July 6, Mission Outreach is hosting a dinner at First United Methodist Church in Marble Falls in memory of Betsy Kemper. The event starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person and $50 per couple. The church is located at 1101 Bluebonnet Drive.
Jackson said the money will be used to expand and improve the Mission Outreach facilities at St. Frederick Baptist Church. The program feeds between 150 to 280 each weekend.
“I think, last year, we did between 12,000 and 15,000 plates,” she said. “The need just keeps growing. We think upgrading the kitchen is something (Betsy) would really appreciate.”
Butch Kemper said when he and his wife, Janice, lived in College Station and visited his mother in Marble Falls, they also often ended up helping at Mission Outreach. It was his mother’s labor of love.
“Why was it important to her?” he replied when asked. “I think it went back to her own mother. My grandfather (Betsy’s father) was a farmer. My grandmother never knew who he would be bringing home for lunch, but she always welcomed them and fed them.”
Butch Kemper joked the hobos must have placed a mark nearby his grandmother’s home because they all seemed to know she would feed them. It didn’t matter who it was, his grandmother had a plate ready.
“Mother just learned that generosity as a child,” he said.
When their mother passed away, Butch Kemper said he and his siblings — John, Charles and Betsy — all concluded that helping Mission Outreach would help their mother’s love and generous spirit continue touching people’s lives.
“She really believed in what Mission Outreach did,” Butch said.
Jackson agreed.
“She was so much a part of (Mission Outreach),” Jackson said. “She loved this ministry.”
For more information on the dinner or to assist Mission Outreach’s fundraising, call (830) 693-4499.
daniel@thepicayune.com