Though I didn't know Betty personally, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the entire family on their tremendous loss. Knowing Betty's beautiful daughter, Kate, and her lovely granddaughters, Sarah and Emma Dobbins, I see her light and love shining on through the generations.

January 25, 2011     

Even tempered and thoughtful. Tolerant without being weak. Smart without pretense, quick and efficient, eminently capable. Cheerful in all weathers, infrequently confused about direction, independent by nature and nurture. Self-assured. Modest, physically and mentally tough, intimidated by none. Gentle, uncomplaining, imbued with sentiment but devoid of sentimentality. 
Betty was many things, and she harnessed all of them to those two great virtues, Loyal and Loving.
Through more than half-a-century as her nephew, I saw her matched only by her sisters as a peerless wife and an unequaled mother and grandmother. She was also an extraordinary aunt, fortunately for me, and a devoted friend.
Those who rolled through her vital days like a long train include these names, and I can’t think of her without hearing the bright echo of their lives, too: Walter and Elizabeth. Fritz, Patty, Franklin, Nancy, David and my mother, Ellen Jean. Mitchell. Beth, Brook, David, Kate, Dick, Mike and Sabrina. Parker, Emily, Sarah, Emma, and Mitch. Lee and Mary. There are more, of course. Strung together, they make a magnificent American poem whose beating heart is Betty.
She always got where she aimed to go. She corralled 87 years of good life as neatly as her father and brothers could coral a herd of July cows with their spring calves. And she did it in her own sweet time and stylish way, branding circumstance and the moment with her heart and soul, to make them her own.
She lived each day that way. 
Moving cows toward No-Man’s-Land on horseback one afternoon during the war, she and her father were caught in the open by a lightening storm, she recalled last summer. Walter rode ahead while she brought up the cows from the rear. But he turned in his saddle to herd her along, too, when the storm got close.
“HURRY UP, DEARIE!” he yelled.
Without thinking — and for the first and last time in her life — she yelled back at him.
“GODDAMNIT, DADDY, I’M COMING AS FAST AS I CAN.”
 Even the storm paused, no doubt, to see what Walter would do.
“He just grinned,” Betty told me. “I think he understood.”
She was right. He did understand.
And he loved her, as we do and will, always.

I can't say enough nice things about my Great-Aunt Betty... loving, loyal, thoughtful, funny, energetic, down-to-earth, and a rock for so many people.  I took particular pleasure witnessing the wonderful friendship between Betty and her sisters Ellen and Patty (my grandmother).  Not a day went by that they didn't talk on the phone, filling each other in on family and personal news.  And I always looked forward to my own visits with her when in Denver.  We're all lucky to have had Betty in our lives.

She was just always there for us-no questions asked.  A truly beautiful person.

Mike:
We are deeply sorry for the passing of your mother.  May God give you peace to you and to your family. Our prayers are with you.

Sincerely;
The Landa family

Dear Cousins,
Mike and I want to express our deepest sympathies for the loss of your Mother, Betty.  She was a grand lady who will be missed by many.

Please accept my deepest sympathies for your recent loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time.
Sue Grant
Milton Hospital

OBITUARY

Betty Rider

January 9, 1924 – January 17, 2011

Olinger Funeral, Cremation & Cemetery - Crown Hill

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