LAKE PLACID — Elizabeth "Betty" Fortune, 91, of Lake Placid, passed away Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, at Uihlein Mercy Center, Lake Placid. She was born in Omaha, Neb., Jan. 1, 1922, the daughter of Joseph and Hulda Wharton.
Betty graduated from Omaha High School and continued on with a professional skating career starting in the 1940s. She worked for the Lamb and Yocum Ice Parade for many years as one of their leading star ice skaters.
Betty is survived by her five children, Joan Kassir and her husband Cal, and their two daughters, Lindsey and Marie, of Virginia Beach, Va., Carol Gamayel Fortune and her husband Sam of New York City, Jean Slutsky and her husband David, and their son, Zachary, of Hunter Mountain, F.J. Fortune III and his wife Cheri, and children Jennifer, Tyler, Teagan, and Elizabeth, and George Fortune and his wife Betty of Lake Placid. She is also survived by her two younger brothers, Robert Wharton of Calif. and Tom Wharton of Omaha, and many nieces and nephews.
Betty is preceded in death by a sister and a brother who died very young, and her husband, Frederick J. Fortune Jr., who died in 1994.
The funeral service will be held at 12 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, in the Reiss Memorial Chapel, at Uihlein Mercy Center, 185 Old Military Rd., Lake Placid. Father Patrick O'Reilley will be officiating. There will be no calling hours. Committal services at St. Agnes Cemetery in Lake Placid will be in the spring. The M.B. Clark, Inc. Funeral Home in Lake Placid is in charge of arrangements.
Friends wishing to remember Betty Fortune may make memorial contributions to the Lake Placid Ambulance Service or the Lake Placid Fire Department. Betty and the family wishes to thank all the staff at Uihlein for all the help they have provided and the wonderful care. Family and friends are invited to light a candle and share a thought, memory, and prayer at www.mbclarkfuneralhome.com.
