Betty passed away peacefully at the Whitehorse General Hospital after a brief illness.
Betty's parents were John Ernst and Lydia Hartwick. They were married in Saskatchewan and John from a previous marriage had 5 kids when his first wife passed. Lydia was also previously married to a Driol and had 5 children and they were John, Jake, Bertha, Theresa and Henry. Together John and Lydia had 8 children. Sara, Esther, Carl, Betty, Manuel, Eva, Tom and Albert. In the twenties families were large if you lived on a farm.
Betty was born September 7, 1925 in a private house near Swalwell Alberta by a midwife.
Betty worked in the hospitality industry in the Banff area in her younger years. She worked for several years at Lake O'Hara Lodge when it was operated by Canadian Pacific Railway. She enjoyed the staff variety shows put on for guests. Instead of a end-of-year bonus, she would always take a guided hiking trip saying that memories were worth more than anything you could buy. One of the hiking trips was a spectacular glacier hike from Lake O'Hara to Moraine Lake. She proudly noted it took her group 7 hours whereas it took most groups 10 hours.
Betty came to the Yukon once in 1954 and worked at the Whitehorse Inn for a couple of years
then went back to Alberta where she met Elzear(Eddy) who was a carpenter and they moved to the Yukon in 1958.
Betty and family lived in shanty town at first or as it is known today as Rotary Park. From there she moved to where the Lynn Building now sits.
In 1964 she moved to Ogilvie St and stayed there for the next 30+ years being a mom. Betty loved gardening and always had a garden every summer.
In her later years she was active with the seniors group and travelled all across Canada for the competitions and won many medals and was the oldest competitor for most of her senior games.
She also worked at a jewelry store in WH for many years and loved her "gold". Many Whitehorse residents and certainly family members were lucky enough to benefit from her love of baking - her pecan tarts and mint and chocolate fudge squares. She was also world class joke teller and crib player.
She was active all her life and will be missed. Betty was predeceased by husband Eddy and son Neil. Betty is survived by her sons, Lorne and Dale and granddaughter Jackie and family and her sister Eva, and brothers Albert and Manual+Jean.
There will be a celebration of life for Betty this Sunday February 2nd at the Gold Rush Inn beginning at 1 pm.
Service Details
Celebration of Life
Sunday, February 2, 2020
1:00 PM
1:00 PM
Gold Rush Inn, 411 Main St, Whitehorse