Betty Fern Hoyt Lathrop

Betty Fern Hoyt Lathrop died January 28th, 2019, one day before her 89th birthday, in her residence at MacKenzie Place, Colorado Springs, CO at 3:30pm. Betty passed peacefully of Alzheimer’s disease with family at her side.

Betty was born on January 29, 1930 in the town of Evanston Illinois. She was the only daughter of Rev. Claire C. and Naomi B. (Pullen) Hoyt. She grew up in small towns across Wyoming and Nebraska, where her father accepted preaching assignments at Methodist churches.

Betty was close to both her parents. Her father Claire was an outdoorsman and raised Betty to appreciate the outdoors, nature, and all of God’s creations. Claire was Betty’s rock throughout her life.

Betty attended the University of Denver on a full scholarship and graduated in 1952 with a BA in Education, including minors in voice and biology. In college she was also inducted into Mortar Board & the PHI BETA Kappa Gama Sorority & remained involved in DU Alumni Activities. She was a K-6th grade music teacher for Littleton Colorado School District for a year in 1953. In Littleton, she also became a member of PEO (Philanthropic Educational Organization for women) and was involved for the rest of her life in PEO chapters across the country.

Betty married Joseph W. Lathrop in 1953 and had (3) sons, Thomas, Patrick & James, over the next 9yrs. She moved many times over the 20 years of her marriage, as Joe’s work on large hardware & software projects (mainly for the military air defense systems) took them from Denver to Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, Alabama, North Dakota, Montana, California, Ohio, Minnesota and back to Colorado. In 1974, she was divorced and remained in Colorado Springs for the final 45 years of her life.

Betty’s mother, Naomi, died in 1956. Her father remarried in 1961 to Velna O. (Garner) Hoyt and she gained a younger sister, Marilyn (Garner) Schroeder (now living in Ft Collins area with her husband Dr. William O. Schroeder).

Betty was always a hardworking woman, having been instilled with that trait at a young age while growing up as a country girl and a Methodist minister’s daughter. After 20 years of raising 3 boys and after her divorce, she went to work as a substitute music teacher for a few years. In 1977 East Junior High hired her as a full-time music and English teacher. While working full time as a teacher and still raising her youngest son, Betty received her Master’s Degree in English in 1982 from the University of Colorado Springs, Colorado. During these times Betty was also very active at her church, singing in the choir and playing the piano and organ.

After retiring from teaching in 1994, Betty became even more active in her community and specifically the arts. She sang more with First United Methodist Chancel Choir, Abendumusik (a choral group for teachers), Colorado Springs Chorale, Soli Deo Gloria Choir, and other choral groups. She became president of the Colorado Springs Symphony Guild, president of the Colorado Springs Chapter of PEO, president of the Colorado Springs Opera Guild, and pianist for the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale, to name a few of her interests. She donated time, talent and money to these and a number of other organizations, too many to mention.

Betty was also very active with her home life, tending to her always-needy garden and yard. She spent many hours and days enjoying taking care of her grape vine, roses, numerous perennials, annuals, vegetables and trees. She absolutely loved the mountains, streams, lakes, wild animals and going on drives and hikes. She loved old jeep roads and not knowing where they might go. She has climbed 14,000 ft. mountains, backpacked in different mountain ranges and enjoyed the night stars around a crackling campfire, including one raging fire of railroad ties at Pueblo Reservoir (trying to attract attention to our plight) when our boat gave out during an evening out with neighbors on the lake. Betty also enjoyed photography to help document her trips and to enjoy the photographs later. She had numerous photographs of places she had visited, with those extra special ones being enlarged, framed and hung in the house. Her home was a shrine of sorts, with most items having a special memory of a family member, a place, or some other history or meaning to her.

In summary, Betty was a very strong, independent, adventurous woman of great faith, moral integrity, grace, beauty (both physically and spiritually) and musical talents. She followed in her father’s footsteps and lead by example, hard work and tireless efforts throughout her life. She was an inspiration and a wonderful mother to her three boys.

A memorial service will be held Friday March 22, 2019 at 2pm at First United Methodist Church, 420 N Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation may be made to either the Chapter BO PEO which will be used for continuing education for young women in the form of scholarships (that Betty helped disburse), or The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (to be used towards a cure for the disease she worked to avoid but fell victim to in the end) at https://curealz.org/giving/donate . If you prefer, you may write a check to The Estate of Betty Lathrop and we will forward those funds to these organizations.