Betty Jane Pelican

Elizabeth “Betty” Jane Pelican passed away peacefully at her home on December 12, 2010, with her family around her. Betty was born on January 11, 1917, in Craig, Colorado. Her parents, William and Carolyn Greene, had homesteaded 160 acres north of Craig, and all three lived there in a two-room log house until Betty Jane was four or five years old. Realizing he couldn’t support his family on the homestead, Betty Jane’s father moved her and her mother to a one-room home that Betty Jane always remembered as “the sagebrush house” on the road between Craig and Rawlins, Wyoming, where they lived while he worked in the oilfields. When Betty Jane was seven years old, the Greenes moved to the Los Angeles area where she lived for the next 15 years, graduating from Huntington Park High School in 1935 and UCLA in 1939. After earning her degree in elementary education, Betty Jane moved to Needles, California, where she taught second grade for three years and third grade for one year. Although she never taught formally in a classroom after that, she loved teaching, and over the years, she volunteer-tutored several children of family friends and other local children who were having difficulty with reading and spelling. All benefited from Betty Jane’s extra help, and one student went on to earn a doctorate in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University.

Betty Jane married Tom Pelican, the love of her life, in Pasadena, California, in 1943. Their two families had known each other since homestead days in northwest Colorado before Betty Jane’s family moved to California. Betty Jane and Tom had become friends when they were teenagers and then sweethearts, carrying on a long-distance relationship for several years. After their wedding, Betty Jane moved to Chicago and was with Tom until he received his Master’s degree and left to serve in the Navy during World War II. While they lived in Chicago, because Tom was going to school full-time with only a modest stipend, Betty Jane worked several jobs to support them. After Tom’s discharge from the Navy, the couple lived briefly in Chicago and then in Texas before settling in Colorado Springs for Tom to join Colorado Interstate Gas Company (CIG) in 1948. During Tom’s tenure at CIG and as a community leader in Colorado Springs, Betty Jane was proud to support him in his many varied roles. For example, she led planning the historical fashion show associated with the Centennial Celebration of Colorado Springs in 1972, for which Tom was General Chairman.

Betty Jane also was active in numerous volunteer efforts of her own, serving as a leader and a dedicated worker within many Colorado Springs groups. Chief among these was the Ladies of Brockhurst, an auxiliary that supported Brockhurst Boys Ranch with many successful fund-raising efforts. She served as president of the Ladies of Brockhurst and was a board member of the Brockhurst Boys Ranch. She was active in school Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) at Queen Palmer and Katherine Lee Bates, her children’s elementary schools, and she was a parent leader in Cub Scouts, Brownies, and Camp Fire Girls. Betty Jane also served in several roles within the Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs, including assistant director of the Thunderbird youth camp outside Woodland Park in the mid-1950s and as president of the board of Thrift House, where she also was a regular volunteer. She and Tom helped establish Chapel of the Holy Spirit, one of Grace Church’s outreach parishes, where she was a member for many years before attending St. Michael’s. She served on the altar guild in both parishes.

Fulfilling a long-held dream, Betty Jane and Tom moved to a 119-acre ranch outside Bayfield, Colorado, after Tom retired from CIG in 1977. Longview Ranch represented a second rewarding life for both of them, and they relished every aspect. While Tom upgraded and maintained the property and its extensive network of irrigation ditches and fences, Betty Jane made their old ranch house into a warm and inviting home, where she and Tom welcomed many friends and family members who visited them over the years until they moved into Durango in 1997. While on the ranch, Betty Jane was an active member of the Bayfield Study Club. During her time on the ranch and after moving into Durango, she was an active parishioner of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church where she served on the altar guild, and she regularly volunteered with Tom at a local charity-run thrift store benefiting the local humane society. In 2003, Betty Jane and Tom moved back to Colorado Springs to be closer to family. Until her death, she maintained close contact with many friends within and beyond Colorado Springs.

In addition to caring deeply about her family and friends and the charitable efforts she was committed to, Betty Jane had a wide range of other interests and talents. Her cooking skills were renowned, with specialties that included fabulous holiday dinners, homemade bread and desserts of all kinds, cookie trees, and festive cakes – sometimes carved into unique shapes but always frosted and decorated in clever and creative ways. From an early age, she loved animals, especially horses and dogs. She was an accomplished horseback rider, and as recently as 10 years ago – much to her family’s consternation – insisted on riding a horse up on the family’s yearly fishing trip, an act of independence that allowed her to see meadows and forests she could no longer walk to. When it came to fishing styles, she broke rank with the rest of her fly-fishing family members and remained committed to bait-fishing all her life, which allowed her to have sole access to many great holes unsuitable for flies. Six or seven years ago, her progressive loss of sight due to macular degeneration could have stopped her from writing letters and reading, but her determination to not give in easily to obstacles allowed her to learn to use a light table to project writing and reading surfaces and make the text larger and more discernable. Using the light table was awkward, but she mastered it and used it regularly until the last year or so. She acquired a liking and talent for crossword puzzles late in life, but her early spelling education by her own mother in their sagebrush house served her well because until she died, she routinely guessed words before others trying to work the same clue.

She loved to travel, and like Tom, fell in love with Mexico when they started going there in 1967. Her basic knowledge of Spanish served both of them well as they returned to Mexico 14 more times. She was genuinely interested in other people with different backgrounds and different life stories, a quality that allowed her to connect with many individuals. She was always grateful for her life being enriched by other people, and based on her wide circle of loving friends and family, others have long felt their lives enriched by her.

Betty Jane was preceded in death by her husband, Tom. She is survived by her son Steve and daughter-in-law Debi; daughter Suzy and son-in-law Fred Vanden Heede; daughter Gail; granddaughters Samantha Pelican Monson (and husband Christian), Libby Pelican Seamans (and husband Will), and Hanna; nieces Claudia Gausman and Jill Lynch; and many, many friends. A memorial service is being planned for 2:00 p.m. Saturday, January 22, 2011, at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs. Betty Jane’s family and her many friends have often described her as the person with the most positive outlook on life that they have known – their “little merry sunshine.” Her generosity of spirit and caring were legendary, and she brought great joy to the lives of her family and countless friends. She will be deeply missed, but all who knew her and loved her will carry with them the memory of her authentic and sweet yet indomitable spirit.

The family extends deepest gratitude to Robin Dahmen and the team members at Life Care Solutions and Right at Home for their exceptional kindness, caring, and commitment to individuals’ self-determination within the bounds of being safe; to the dedicated caregivers at Pikes Peak Hospice who helped ease both Betty Jane’s and Tom’s transitions; and to Dr. Jeffrey Kulp and the staff at his practice for the care they provide, including the respect and gentleness they show patients and family members.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 1355 S. Colorado Blvd., Room C-200, Denver, CO 80222, or a charity of the donor’s choice.