Betty Jean Wood

Betty Jean Wood, age 95, passed away April 20, 2018. Beloved mother of twin daughters Lois Campbell and Lynette Spitz, and adoring grandmother of nine grandsons: Eric and Ryan Probstfeld, Stephen Spitz, Greggory, Garrett and Gavin Campbell, Steven, Michael and Gregory Tucker. She leaves 14 great grandchildren: Bryce, Brenna, Patrick, Hayden and Carter Campbell. David, Erin and Jonathan Tucker. Olivia Lee and Rowan Snell. Max, Elizabeth, Alex and Madeleine Probstfeld.   Betty was born in Buffalo, New York, June 1, 1922. She was the second child and only daughter of George Herman Everett and Grace Louise Harris Everett. Her older brother George A. Everett preceded her in death. An extraordinary woman, she graduated from the School of Fine Arts of the Buffalo Arts Academy, known then as the Albright Art School, during WWII, at a time when it was unusual for women to attend college. She was a gifted artist, working for J.N.Adams department store in Buffalo, and in New York City. In 1946 she traveled to California to interview with Disney Studios, staying with Ida Wood, a friend of her mother’s from Buffalo. She met Charlton B. Wood on that visit. He was Ida’s son, and had returned from the war during her visit. Betty went home to Buffalo, NY for most of a year. She came back to California in March 1947 to marry Chuck Wood, and lived in southern California for the rest of her life. Betty and Chuck were married just short of 38 years when he died in March 1985.   Her art career spanned several decades, doing advertising art for newspapers and catalogs for department stores. Eventually she owned her own business. Betty loved to play the piano, and learned to play the organ in her forties. Her grandsons know her as an always-willing game and card player. Many of them remember that she taught them to draw and paint. She loved to bowl and has many bowling trophies earned even in her eighties.   Betty survived many of her friends and contemporaries. She loved her many nieces and nephews, and always enjoyed the time she spent visiting with Susie Wood Temple, Jan Whitley Stoicowicz and Kathy Whitley Buchan, especially after their mothers had passed away. She was known for constantly redecorating, and she was good at it. Betty brought an artistic flair to everything she did. As arthritis crippled her hands in her last years, she missed drawing and painting the most.   Betty got her first computer long after her husband passed away. She had an iPad and a Facebook page, and learned to love sending email from [email protected]. She was a willing student, a good friend, and a wonderful mother. Betty had only two vices: jelly donuts and pink wine. She will be missed.   There will be a memorial service on June 1, 2018, at 2:00pm. Trinity Lutheran Church, 4101 E. Nohl Ranch Road, Anaheim, CA. Everyone is welcome.   In lieu of flowers the family requests a donation in her memory to the charity of your choice.