Bette Hanna Sikes

Bette Hanna Sikes, born on Dec. 1, 1928 near Raphine, Virginia, died of natural causes at her South Shore home in Chicago on Nov. 13, 2024. Daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she moved with her family to Grundy, Va., then to Charlestown, Ind., before completing high school in Montreat, N.C. At the College of Wooster she majored first in music education and then history, and was active in Model U.N. and in summertime urban service projects of the American Friends Service Committee.

Soon after graduation Bette moved to Hyde Park in Chicago and began her editorial career with the Journals Division of University Chicago Press. In the mid-1960s she moved to the American Bar Foundation, where she became Director of Publications as well as Managing Editor of the ABF Research Journal, later renamed Law & Social Inquiry (LSI). There her genial application of high standards soon earned her the fond nickname “Queen of the Universe.” She also taught evening courses in manuscript editing from time to time. After leaving the ABF staff in 1990, she served from home as Production Editor for Law & Society Review while continuing to edit articles for LSI before retiring to high acclaim in 1999.

While she was still new to Chicago, Bette joined the young adult group at First Unitarian Church of Chicago. There she met George Sikes, whom she married in 1956. They worked well together on racial and other social justice work: organizing, marching (memorably in Dr. King’s March on Marquette Park in 1966), and raising funds. Both active at church, they also shared a love of camping and backpacking. Although they remained cordial, their marriage ended in the 1970s.

Bette loved music and performing. During the 1960s she appeared in several productions of Hyde Park’s Gilbert & Sullivan Society, often as the “middle-aged heavy,” as she put it, and at church was a stalwart of the adult choir into the late 1970s. She lent her organizational skills to the board of early-music ensemble Basically Bach for several years, and generously supported outstanding local choral groups.

During those years, Bette was deeply involved with First Unitarian. Over the decades she served—sometimes more than once—as president, trustee, treasurer, delegate to denominational meetings, newsletter editor, religious education teacher, and member of many standing and ad hoc committees, including two ministerial search committees. She baked hundreds of pecan pies for the talent auction and was parish clerk for decades. Beyond church, she served on the condo boards of the last three places she lived. In short, she lived out her firm belief that people working together in voluntary organizations had the capacity to make the world better.

Consistent with so much else in her life, it was at First Unitarian where Bette met college student Joan Pederson in 1972. Years later, after Bette’s marriage had ended and Joan had graduated, they served together as delegates to numerous denominational meetings. Travel to meetings led to travel for its own sake, generally to places where they could hike, camp, enjoy the natural world, and/or spend time with kin. They began full-time life together in 1989, and were married at church in 2014, the first year Illinois allowed. They filled their successive homes with books and their free time with trips to places where they’d never been.

Bette is survived by her spouse Joan Pederson; nieces and nephews Jill Hanna (Rich Haley), Lyle (Mary Diane) Hanna, Bill (Nancy) Hanna, Pat (Lynn) Hanna, Natalie Lund, Ed (Kim) Hanna, Rev. Richard Hanna, William (Renee) Fichter, Liz Hanna, Marty Almquist (Larry Campbell), Suzun Almquist (Richard Cruser), Ellie Almquist Gieser (Randy Gieser), and Karen Almquist (Wendy Beckerman); and numerous great-nieces and -nephews and their families. She outlived her parents, Rev. C. Morton Hanna and Margaret Bell Hanna; her siblings and their spouses Rev. Charles (Phyllis) Hanna, Rev. Edwin (Arpiné) Hanna, and Margallen (Donn) Fichter; ex-husband Rev. George Sikes; nephew Phil Hanna; and niece-in-law Lisa Kidd Hanna.

The memorial service for Bette Sikes will take place at 2 pm on Sun., Jan. 19 at First Unitarian Church of Chicago, 5650 S. Woodlawn Ave. Her remains will be interred in the church’s memorial crypt. In her memory and following her lifelong example, donate your time and treasure generously and repeatedly to organizations making a positive difference whether locally, nationally, or internationally: First Unitarian Church of Chicago, for instance. And share good humor whenever you can.

Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremation Options of Schiller Park, IL.