Betty Meyring

Born to Opal Heack and Carl Dohlman on March 16, 1922, in Kansas City, Missouri, Betty’s family moved to Colorado where she spent her childhood in the small western slope towns of Crested Butte and Delta. The family moved to Boulder in 1936 when she was in ninth grade. She attended Casey Junior High School and Boulder High School, graduating in 1940. Hers was the first class to enter Boulder High School at its current location, and as a member of the band she modeled the new school band uniform for a photograph in the Boulder Daily Camera.

While attending the University of Colorado her freshman year, she met and married Clayton H. Meyring, who later became the chief building inspector for the City of Boulder. Betty and Clayton married on July 3, 1941.

She lived with Clayton’s parents on 28th and Walnut Streets in Boulder while Clayton was stationed in New Guinea during WWII. During this time she worked as a telephone operator and as a teller for the Mercantile Bank and Trust Company in downtown Boulder.

The couple raised three daughters in Boulder. Shortly after her first daughter graduated from high school, Betty decided to return to the University of Colorado to complete her undergraduate degree graduating with a major in English in 1960. She returned to her alma maters and began teaching speech and English at Casey Junior High later transferring to Boulder High School where she taught composition, British Literature and creative writing. As head of the English department, she created innovative classes in literature that motivated and stimulated students’ thinking. In 1965 she earned a Masters degree in English Literature at the University of Colorado. She is fondly remembered by many of her students as one who inspired them to think deeply about the connections between literature and life.

Due to a hearing impairment she retired from teaching after only 20 years, but she continued to express her love of literature as an avid reader and poet. While at Frasier she actively participated in a poetry group, writing and reading aloud her poems that attend to nature and the people around her. In 2010 she published a collection of her favorite poems titled Frasier and I.

Her husband, Clayton, her late life companion, John La Salle, her daughter, Christine, and her son-in-law, Kent Lyon preceded her in death. Honoring her memory are daughters Nancy Beitel of Richland, WA. and Laura Lyon of Boulder, grandchildren Amy Kanai (Toshi) of Seattle, WA, Heidi Dixon (Michael) of Harrow, UK, Alex Beitel (Kim) of Reno, NV, Matthew Lyon of Longmont, CO, Katie Lyon Collinsworth (Jeff) of Lafayette, CO and great grandchildren Mitsue Kanai, Osaka, Japan, and Takashi Kanai, Seattle, WA.

Going forward, we celebrate her by carrying in our hearts her love of life, her spunk and sparkle, and her deeply held belief in the power of education to overcome obstacles and transform lives.

The family would like to thank the staff and caring community at Frasier Retirement Center in Boulder where Betty spent the last 14 years of her life. The Frasier Health Care staff and Suncrest Hospice provided great comfort during the past three years of her life.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the spring.