Cincinnati Enquirer
Betty Finney Is Growing Young
It was 1998 when Betty Finney met the man who did the hiring for the Cincinnati Enquirer’s sales team. She was 64 years old at the time, just about the age that has many others itching to retire. She had never had a sales job before but she wanted to do that.
Not only did she get the job, she won awards every year that she worked there. One day she had a really incredible sale and she wanted her boss to know. It was pretty obvious by her expression she had something important to say. As she paused, he walked over to her. There was a moment of silence…and then she blurted it out, “I am excited, and I want to tell you that I am pregnant.”
I first heard her Enquirer story some 20 years later in a three-minute Toastmasters speech. And through coming to know her since, it has become pretty obvious, Betty is not a woman who is going to let another year around the sun slow her down. She was 78 years old when she earned a master’s degree in natural health. “I got that because I don’t care for doctors and I want to be able to care for myself,” she told me over lunch the other day.
Courageous, tenacious, funny, loyal, kind-hearted, spontaneous. Those are all words that describe this woman with too many goals to let a thing like aging stand in her way. She calls her latest business, Oomph!! Through it she offers talks and strategies for Growing Young. “Be transformed from a frail, stifled brain, dampened spirited person to a blooming mind, high energy, vibrant human being,” she has on her homepage.
It is an attitude that has served her well in life.
Betty and her husband, Charlie have been married more than 60 years. They have seven children and 15 grandkids. They rarely argue. They are independent. They are trusting of one another. They take risks. They love to travel. They love each other. And together, life is never boring.
Their stories are priceless.
LIKE when their seventh child was due and fathers were not allowed in delivery rooms, only Charlie wanted to be there. 
Betty happened to have read a book that suggested if your doctor would not allow it, to tell your doctor that you would handcuff each other together. Charlie mentioned it to their OBGYN, who, after some thought, told the couple, “Betty usually delivers in the middle of the night so we will dress you in a doctor’s attire and you can hide your camera underneath and I will tell them you are allowed.” And, that is how Charlie witnessed the birth of his youngest child.
LIKE when the couple were vacationing in Costa Rica in their 60s and Charlie mentioned zip lining. Betty didn’t know what she was getting herself into, and then, when it was over, they were asked if they wanted to do the Tarzan swing. “I said, ‘ok’,” Betty told me. “So we did that too. We were told that whoever screamed the loudest would get a gift. I screamed pretty loud.”
LIKE when Betty announced one day after years of staying home to be with her kids that she didn’t want to do the housewife thing any longer. She was prepared for Charlie’s objection…that didn’t come. When asked what she wanted to do, Betty told her husband, “have a career.” And he told her, “then go do it!”
After Betty began working and the realization hit her that keeping a household running and keeping the laundry clean was going to be tough, again she found no resistance. What did he do instead? Betty shared the story. “He said he was going to announce at dinner that everyone will do their own laundry. That means everything,” she told me. “He did that and everyone was like, ‘No Way!’ He also made me promise that if I did any of the laundry for anyone, that he would never make an announcement like that again. A couple weeks later he said that he couldn’t find his blue jeans, the ones he put down the laundry shoot…we negotiated.”
By the way, when Betty was applying for that first job, she didn’t have a whole lot to include on a professional resume but she figured she gained some pretty valuable experience in her years at home. She called that position, “household maintenance engineer”. It was that title that got her the job doing public relations for Kathrine Switzer’s Avon Running. (It most certainly was not because she told her future boss in the interview that she had never un or even seen a race.)
Fast forward to 2018
Betty and I are sitting across the table from each other having lunch. She wants to know if I have any connections with prisons.
Connections with prisons?
Yep! You see, she had presented her program three times at a local prison, talking to the inmates about using laughter as a way of removing tension. One of those inmates rolled on the floor, kicking his feet up in pure, unadulterated joy. After her third visit she remembers seeing them line up single file. She had to pass in front of them to exit, and, when she got in front of them, they began clapping in the way that she had taught them until she was out the door. “I cried all the way home because I knew I had gotten to them for some happiness in their day,” Betty said.
A year later she was approached in a card store. “Are you Betty? Did you do the laughter at Riverside Prison?,” he asked as Betty realized he was the man who rolled on his back. “I just want to tell you that I am out of prison. I made one dumb mistake and learned my lesson in prison. Thank you for laughing with me. It made a big impact on me.”
I think Betty has a big impact on everyone who comes in her path. It is just her way.
Question to Betty: What is your personal philosophy on life?
“To love everybody but first love yourself. Be happy. Be positive. Negativity will get in your way every time.”
Eleven Reasons To Love Cincinnati Told At #CincyStorytellers
Please click here to watch John’s talk. NOTE: Videos produced by Glenn Hartong
Last week, I sat in a filled to capacity room at the Phoenix as a panel of 11 people filled the stage, sharing one-by-one their own very personal story about their life and the impact of our region on it. It was all part of the new Enquirer series called #CincyStorytellers. You can watch all of their talks at this link.
What I loved about the event, besides the fact that I always enjoy opportunities to hear other people tell stories, was the great diversity they represented, the different points of view and different life experiences that individually and collectively are what has built such a dynamic region.
Take a look at who we heard from (as listed at www.Cincinnati.com):
David Falk owns Boca and Sotto and Nada. He is making Cincinnati a better place to eat nearly every day. Falk has lived all over the world, but in October of 2013 he wrote a Love Letter to this city on Huffington Post. He changed the conversation.
Molly Wellmann makes an amazing drink. She also creates places that make people happy. That is not easy. She owns The Famous Neon’s Unplugged, Japp’s, The Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar and The Hearth Room. And Myrtle’s Punch House. Wellmann is also a true believer in this place. We have no stronger advocate.
Aftab Pureval is a lawyer at Procter & Gamble and this year he was in C-Change, a leadership-development program with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. He was part of a group that created the Grand City Experiment, which challenged people to do small things every day to make this a more welcoming place. It was simple, and it made a difference.
Libby Hunter is an example for all of us. One day, she saw some kids being lousy to another person. She thought all those kids needed was something to do; to love words and learning. It was naive, at best, and somehow, Hunter turned her life upside down to create miracles in Northside at a place called WordPlay Cincy. Now the story is evolving.
Dan Wright opened Senate in Over-the-Rhine before opening a restaurant there was a thing. He made a statement and invested his time and money. It was kind of a game changer. Then he opened Abigail. Now Pontiac BBQ. He planted a flag.
Alisha Budkie has a different kind of story. She has always been a part of the creative community in Cincinnati. She also knew of the frequent connection between creativity and mood imbalances. So she decided to create a community at that intersection. It will change lives.
Yvette Simpson has lived a life of civil service. She grew up here and faced her share of struggles early. But she found herself through work and education and became a leader. Simpson is intelligent and charming and she serves on City Council anyway. She is making a big difference.
If you ever noticed a big guy with a big beard and a bigger smile walking around Over-the-Rhine and thought he looked like a happy viking, you probably saw Jason Snell. His company is actually called We Have Become Vikings. He is an artist, designer, creator and light maven. If you liked the flying birds at Lumenoicty, thank Jason. If you like Mr. Satin, thank Jason. If you liked the Henry Holtgrewe mural, thank Jason.
Every city needs a Kathy Y. Wilson. She writes like an angel, and she challenges people like a sledge hammer. This is her home. And she is making it better with her words.
James Marable is smart and interesting, and making people dress better. Marable wanted to open a business, so he quit his cushy and safe job, ran up every credit card he had, borrowed and depleted his savings and opened OTR Fresh. Now he has a place on Main Street that provides a different look for a city that can sometimes use one.
Not listed here (probably because he compiled the list) was organizer and Enquirer reporter John Faherty. I actually was most looking forward to hearing what he was going to share because I follow his writings (all of the panelists were people whom he has written about). John has a way of expressing himself that moves and inspires me. Last year he openly and candidly shared his very personal, brave battle…and its impact on not only his own life but the lives of those who love him. If you haven’t already read his documentary article on how a transplant saved his life, I highly recommend it. During his #CincyStorytellers talk, he reminded the standing room only crowd that it was a pancreas transplant as he looked to the side of the room toward a few of his greatest supporters, his family.
There were so many lessons to have been learned in that evening. There were so many reasons to celebrate our great place where we all live, work and play. It is our diversity that collectively gives us all strength. Whether we are walking down the street, at work or a place of worship, or attending an event, we should realize that each one of us has our own personal story…our internal battles, challenges 
that we have overcome, people who make our lives whole, sadness and laughter. In our daily hast, think about how much more enriched our own lives would be if we take a moment to learn something new about someone…either a stranger or an individual already in our life. Let’s talk to each other. Let’s share our stories. Let’s be there for each other. And let’s celebrate that what we each bring to this world is truly a gift.
