Betty Carmen Dargis

Betty Winther Johnson Dargis lived a full life in her 97 years. She was born on March 31, 1926 to Peter and Marie Winther in Portland, Oregon, joining her 3 year old sister sister, Virginia. Growing up on North Lovely Street Betty was surrounded by a group of neighborhood friends who attended Portsmouth Elementary School, played at Peninsula Park and eventually attended Roosevelt High School together.

At age 15 she attended Camp Westwind on the Oregon coast, an experience that had a profound impact. Her children heard tales of overnight hikes up Cascade Head where the girls laid out their bed rolls hoping to avoid the cow pies left behind by grazing cattle. We learned all her favorite camp songs and sang them to our own children. Betty’s lifelong love of hiking began while a camper at Westwind.

Betty spend one memorable year at Linfield College and remained a loyal Wildcat all her life. She was a welder’s assistant in the Portland shipyards during World War II. She married Marvin Johnson and together they had 4 children: Jenny, Liz, Pete and Jerome. The family lived in Albany, Oregon where Betty was a valued volunteer with the PTA, Bluebird and Campfire Girls and a loyal supporter of her sons’ sporting events. Every year on the last day of school her children took one of her delicious pies to school as a thank you to their teachers. She embarrassed her children by singing while driving their carpools or in the produce aisle of the grocery store.

In 1972 Betty married Jeff Dargis and moved to West Linn, Oregon. She accompanied Jeff on many fishing trips but was never a fishing person herself. It was while sitting in the boat while Jeff fished Diamond Lake that she decided she would climb Mount Theilson. She recruited several of her children and lead that first hiking expedition. These hikes were to become annual events. Betty would organize the trek and her children, their spouses and eventually grandchildren followed along up the South Sister and Mount St. Helens to name a couple.

Betty became more courageous and adventurous as she aged. In her 60’s she went to work for the Christie School which was a therapeutic residential program for severely emotionally disturbed children. The kids loved to see Betty and she had a way of making them each feel special. She began attending church and became well known for her gardening skills and the ability to make flowers bloom anywhere. She became heavily involved with the church and sang in the choir, hosted women’s Bible study, as well as greeted many a guest to the church.

Betty was fascinated by her mother’s Puerto Rican heritage. She made two trips to Puerto Rico and discovered some unexpected twists and turns in her mother’s history. Betty then spent several years working on a historical-fiction novel, Out of the Shadows, which was based on her discoveries. She self published and her family holds these books dear.

Betty was a true lover of life and the beauty of simple things. She enjoyed basking in the sun on her back deck, listening to the birds and watching the dragonfly that visited her backyard annually. She ran up until her 80th year of life. Rain or shine you would see her outside running and later walking through the Debok neighborhood with her oh so loyal dog.

Betty was unapologetically proud of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and is survived by Jennifer Gilchrist (John Webster), Elizabeth Winther (Bob ), Peter Johnson (Tracy) and Jerome Johnson and her niece Jeanne Mullen (Rocky), 9 grandchildren and 11 1/2 great- grandchildren.

She died on November 3, 2023. She will be missed.