Betty Lois Donaldson Courtney

In her childhood, she attended Winslow School and moved around several times in the area of Winslow. Being the height of the Great Depression, the Donaldsons were dirt poor; everyone in the family struggled and pitched in to make ends meet. This struggle and the hard work it required influenced Betty’s life for many years.

On April 12, 1946, Betty married her husband, Conrad Courtney at Fort Hood, TX. They remained married until his passing in January of this year. Betty and Conrad had 10 children – Hurshel, Joyce, Cynthia “Bink”, Barb, Rusty, Kenny, April, Danita, Toni and Brian. She was preceded in death by her parents, Grace and William, siblings Billy, Raymond and Mary Jane, her son, Kenny and granddaughter, Crystal.

As you can imagine, with as many children as they had, Betty was a homemaker and a mother. Her children, and their children, were very important to her. She was “Mom” and “Grandma” to almost 120 children, spouses, grandchildren, great-grand children and even great-great-grand children. Even friends of the family called her Mom or Grandma. She made everyone feel welcome in her home and she loved to feed people. She was an excellent cook who rarely used a recipe and measured ingredients in the palm of her hands. It’s funny that a woman who cooked that way would love to collect cookbooks. Hundreds and hundreds of them. If you were in the kitchen with her, things were done her way. Boiling wasn’t boiling until she said so. Whether it was her embroidery or gardening, her way was the right way. But that’s how she was.

Everyone will remember how loving and sweet Betty was. But she could also be very opinionated and very stubborn. Those who were with her at the end tell me after her last breath, her heart was strong and continued to beat. To achieving that balance, of strength and tenderness, is a blessing. And the true mark of a life well lived. Betty you will be missed.