Day, Elizabeth "Betty" daughter of the late Elizabeth (Linehan) and Frank Klosterman. She was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, William "Bill" Harry Day and special friend William "Red" McCabe. She is survived by her children Doug (Mary Del) Day, Donna (Jim) Robers, Denny (Judy) Day, Duane (Sabrina) Day, Dreux (Terri) Day and Deanna (late Don) Taylor. She is also survived by 16 grandchildren: Carla Allen (Doug), DJ (Sarah), Drew Robers (Heather), Brad Robers (Courtney), Michele Thamann (Ken), Julie, Nicole Barger (Joe), Denny (Cari), Justin, Adam (Kristen), Emily, Lindsey Karanovich (Zac), Evan, Sydney, Ben, Leah and 16 great-grandchildren. Passed away on Sunday, April 30, 2017 age 92 years. Betty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 18, 1925 she attended St. Boniface Elementary and Our Lady of Mercy High School. She was president of Our Lady of Mercy Alumni for 15 years. She was also president of Our Lady of Lourdes Ladies Society. She was a member of St. Catharine Bridge Club, St. Ignatius Bridge Club and The Newman Club. Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Memorial Mass on Wednesday, May 3 at 10:30am at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 2832 Rose Bud Dr. Cincinnati, Ohio 45238. Memorials may be directed to the Don Taylor's Children's Fund at Fifth Third Bank or Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

She experience the great flood, the war years and lived life to its fullest in the Queen City
They were ready to pull in the gangplank and turn the Island Queen back toward Cincinnati when Betty Klosterman and her friends came running down the path from Coney Island. “Wait. We’re coming!” Betty yelled, and once again, Betty was the last to board the boat after a night of dancing at Moonlight Gardens.
In living and in dying, Betty hated to leave a party. For days, she lingered under the compassionate attention of Hospice of Cincinnati and surrounded by her family—holding on beyond the time expected, but finally, on April 30, 2017, Elizabeth “Betty” Klosterman Day departed this world at age 92.
Betty was 11-months-old when her name first appeared in Cincinnati newspapers, “Babe from Northside Wins,” read the headline. Although she was the unlucky No. 13 entrant, “Betty obtained 99.2 of a possible 100 points” and was “adjudged to be the most perfect entrant under one year old,” winning the Better Babies contest held at Music Hall, part of the Ohio Pure Food Show.
From her childhood in Northside to young adult years in Walnut Hills to years as a wife and mother, raising six children, in Westwood, to her final years in College Hill, Betty soaked in all the city had to offer. Her stories, which have delighted friends and family, were a peek into life in the Queen City from 1925-2017.
As a St. Boniface grade schooler, Betty would carry a cut glass pitcher to a local bar for the bartender to fill it with beer for her father—the price was five cents. When recently exploring her old haunts in Northside, Betty was surprised to see that what had once been the Irish Catholic church, St. Timothy, and later St. Pius, was now a brewery itself. Betty recalled standing in line with containers to be filled with safe drinking water in Northside during the Great Flood of 1937.
When a doctor’s care was needed, Betty would visit a doctor on Pullan Ave in Northside. Patients waited in his front room until their turn to go behind a curtain for the consultation. Then the doctor mixed whatever medicine was needed on the spot. The charge for the exam and medicine was always the same—one dollar.
In 1942, Betty’s family moved to Walnut Hills on May Street and began to take in boarders to help make ends meet during the war years. Because World War II had taken many of the young men from town, Betty, her friends and other young women would travel by bus to Fort Knox to dance with the enlisted men. The women boarded the bus early in the morning with curlers in their hair and house dresses on. As they got closer to Fort Knox, the women would start dressing for their dates. “The bus driver could hardly keep his eyes on the road,” Betty said with a wink. Betty became friends with and remained a pen pal with some of the soldiers she met. A cigar box still holds the letters.
While a student at Our Lady of Mercy High School, which was in the building of the current Cincinnati Job Corps on Western Ave., Betty and her friends pulled off a senior prank that went unnoticed by the administration—they painted the toenails of the Virgin Mary statue. When Betty checked many years later at an alumni event, Mary was still sporting her pedicure.
Betty may have been famous for under-the-radar pranks. One April Fool’s Day, she put wax paper between the bologna slices when she packed her children’s lunch sandwiches. Again her prank went unnoticed as each child ate the sandwiches, oblivious to the extra fiber.
After high school graduation, Betty starting working in the Procter & Gamble Research Bakery. One of the perks to the job was getting there each morning—she would take the bus from her Walnut Hills home to Bellevue Park and then ride the Bellevue Incline to downtown Cincinnati. Betty loved the incline and could never understand why the inclines had been retired.
While at Procter & Gamble, Betty had the opportunity to be a hand model for an advertorial that gave homemakers tips on making cakes during the war years. The picture showed Betty’s hands holding a cake pan alongside a lumpy cake and these words, “Because of the shortage of skilled bakery help, and the difficulty of obtaining sufficient quantities of many critical ingredients such as sugar and shortening, Crunch Cakes offer a welcome solution to these problems.”
Betty always talked about how much she enjoyed her job in the Research Bakery and she may have continued that career for many years, but life intervened in the form of Bill Day, a softball-playing, construction worker from the Westside. Betty’s independence and love of fun sealed the deal. “Bill had a girlfriend before me who was always complaining about him playing softball,” Betty said. “When Bill asked me if I minded if he played softball, I told him, ‘Not at all. I’m busy myself.’”
Betty and Bill Day raised a family of six children. Bill became an owner of Modern Day Concrete and Betty focused on making a home for her family. She was known for her unorthodox and trendy decorating—painting rainbow stripes on the walls of the boy’s bedroom, making doors out of hanging beads and carpeting the house in Kelly green carpet. Betty was also known for her sewing skills. She sewed all the prom dresses for her girls and once sewed matching shirts for her husband and sons—the fabric pattern was calypso men playing bongos. The children never forgot those shirts.
Perhaps one of the best memories of Betty and Bill were the parties they had with their many groups of friends—the Tap a Keg Club, the 500 Card Club and the St. Catherine Group. The friends would meet weekly to play cards, sing to the player piano at the Day’s house and tap the keg. The St. Catherine Group took a yearly houseboat trip that would culminate in an evening of the men cooking and the women putting on a themed variety show.
In the last two years of her life, Betty moved to an apartment at Ohio Living Llanfair. Her love for fun and activity did not wane as she joined several card groups, playing bridge, Euchre and other card games, became the Food Representative for her floor, and joined the Llanfair craft group. The Llanfair craft group was in addition to another craft group that she belonged to—the Crafty Ladies. Betty was a member of the Crafty Ladies, who met weekly, for more than 10 years.
Betty was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, William (Bill) Harry Day and special friend William (Red) McCabe. She is survived by her children Doug (MaryDel), Donna Robers (Jim), Denny (Judy), Duane (Sabrina), Dreux (Terri), and Deanna Taylor (the late Don). Also survived by 16 grandchildren: Carla Allen (Doug), DJ (Sarah), Drew Robers (Heather), Brad Robers (Courtney), Michele Thamann (Ken), Julie, Nicole Barger (Joe), Denny (Cari), Justin, Adam (Kristen), Emily, Lindsey Karanovich (Zac), Evan, Sydney, Ben, Leah and 16 great-grandchildren.