Betty Feuz

Betty Jane Feuz, age 97, longtime resident of Jackson, Wyoming died Friday, November 17, 2017 at the Legacy Lodge Assisted Living in Jackson.

In her words:

I was born September 20, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois.  My parents were Webb and Jane Howard and I had a brother Aus who was 7 years older.  My grandparents, Orin and Rose Austin lived in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Grandma came from Germany as a young girl and was 20 years younger than grandpa, who was raise in Vermont.  His mother was a Webster, related to Nathaniel Webster who wrote the dictionary.  Her family went back to the Revolutionary Was where they lived along the Hudson and helped finance the war.  My brother Eau and I visited Eau Claire often with mother.  Dad’s parents were both dead when I was born.

We lived in a suburb which was like a small town, Morgan Park.  We had a train station and could ride the train anywhere.  In our neighborhood whoever moved in stayed.  I went to grade school and high school with the same friends.  The neighbors on our block often had picnics together or would go to the Indiana Sand Dunes, coming home sunburned and worn out.  We were the last ones to have a car but could walk to the streetcar and ride anywhere for 3 cents.  I had a happy childhood.

I was always an adventurer.  In High School I had a friend, Ed Fricke and we went everywhere together.  We started birdwatching, getting up at 6 during the migrations.  We had a long list of the different birds we saw.  We went on Audobon trips and hiking with the Prerie club where we generally took a train out to the country.  We visited every museum, aquarium and art institute.  Chicago was a great place to grow up.

I joined the Girl Scouts at age 10 and started going to summer camp, which I loved.  In High School, camp was in North Wisconsin, Timber Trails.  There we did a lot of canoeing and I met a lifelong friend, Esther Stevens Craighead.  A group of gals I met from camp took 2 major canoe trips into the Quetico Wilderness lakes on the border of Minnesota and Canada.

I went to Junior College and majored in Business.  I spent some time working in Texas for Shell Oil then moved back to Chicago where I worked as a stenographer.

Ester Craighead visited me in Chicago and invited me to join her in Jackson Hole.  I arrived in Jackson on January 1, 1946.  Ester and Margaret Craighead’s husband were in the Navy and were gone for the winter.  The girls were running the Moose Post Office.  Bob and Fran Carmichael had a store, fishing business and ran the Post Office at Moose and were able to be gone for the winter with girls there.  We had a fun winter.  That summer I worked for the Carmichaels selling gas and groceries and lived in a tent.  I met Walt Feuz that summer and we married that fall.

Walt’s family moved here from Switzerland and homesteaded on Spread Creek in 1910.  Walt bought land in Buffalo Valley where we ranched and raised our family.  We all worked incredibly hard.  I was the full time mother, cook, and bookkeeper.  We took time to hike many trails in the Tetons and walk the river bottoms looking for Morrel mushrooms.  Jane and I took a packtrip in the wilderness one summer.

Walt died in 1993.  The ranch responsibilities moved to the kids and I began spending winters in Arizona where I had wonderful friends.  I was also able to do a lot of travelling and had many great trips with friends, kids and grandkids.

I was active in Moran Sunday School.  We met for many years at the Moran School where we all worshipped together.  I was on the Moran School Board.  An annual meeting was held and the community decided on expenses, buildings, hired the 2 teachers, and salaries.  Later the county took over the outlying schools.  I served on the Library Board.  I’ve been a lifelong reader.

Finally, I realize all this took place with the help of God.  I’ve felt His love through my life in little things as well as big things.  Our fellowship in Moran has been a blessing, as has my family.  That’s one reason I love going new places and sharing those experiences.  What a time we’ve all had together!

May God bless each and every one of you!

Betty was survived by 5 daughters: Jane (Grant) Golliher; Marti (Bryan) Warner; Chris (Jerome) Young; Joanne (Brad) Luton and Sue Sheard (Scott Coons); 5 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her brother Aus Howard.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at the River Crossing Church in Rafter J with the Pastor Mike Atkins officiating.  Burial will be in the South Park Cemetery in Jackson.

“I love life to the fullest but look forward to the other side.”