Betty Jean Hunt

Betty Jean (Henderson) Hunt, age 97, died peacefully in her home in Riverside, California on March 11, 2024. In nearly a century of living, Betty blessed her large circle of friends and family with her love of life, her simple-yet-profound wisdom and her unconditional love and acceptance. Betty was born on a farm in Oklahoma on October 29, 1926 — the tenth child in a loving family of 12 kids. She always credited her mother Clara Mae (Scott) Henderson and her father Moses Uriah Henderson for her lifelong happiness, as they taught her to appreciate the simple joys of life and to know the difference between wants and needs. She married her husband Robert (Bob) Woolever Hunt in Norman, Oklahoma in 1944. They had three children, Robert Thomas (Tom), Joyce Jean and Nicolle Ann—each 9 years apart. Betty moved to Riverside in the 1960s and began working at the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino, where she found purpose as a guard and counselor for the state’s only few women on Death Row. In retirement, Betty made the most of life camping and traveling the world with her best friend Helen Aurelia Smith, 98, of Lake Elsinore, California. The two friends published two novels together. In the sunset of her life, she loved telling her grandchildren funny stories from the farm, whooping everyone at cards and hosting perhaps thousands of dinners which became the backdrop for so many of her loved ones’ best memories. Betty Jean Hunt is preceded in death by her mother and father, all of her siblings, her husband Bob, her son Tom, her son-in-law Mike and her treasured grandson Adam, who she always hoped to hug again one day. In life, she leaves behind her daughters Joyce and Nikki, her daughter-in-law Karen, her sons-in-law Alan and Marc, six grandkids, seven great-grandkids, her best friend Helen and her dear friend and neighbor Maria. Although Betty has left us in life, she will live on always in the happiest memories of everyone who loves her.

A memorial service for Betty will be held Friday, April 26, 2024 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Acheson & Graham Garden of Prayer Mortuary, 7944 Magnolia Ave, Riverside, CA 92504.