Betty Hendricks Crowther, 92, passed away Monday, August 4, 2014. Betty Jane Hendricks was born to Samuel Allen and Georgia Marteal Wight Hendricks on Dec. 19, 1921, in Richmond, Utah, in the home of her maternal grandmother Hilma Wight. Grandma Wight was a widow, but she was also a trained nurse and had a maternity hospital in her home. Betty was also very close to her paternal grandparents Samuel W. and Esther Jane Hyer Hendricks, who lived just down the street. Betty had two sisters, Carol Dawn and Kay, and her brother Sam was born after she left home to begin her freshman year at Utah State Agricultural College.

Betty began school in Montpelier, Idaho, where her father managed the J.C. Penney store. From Montpelier the family moved to Downey, Idaho. When Betty’s dad took the J.C. Penney manager’s job in Malad, Idaho, the family first moved into a home on Samaria Lane and then to 52 Bush Avenue. Betty’s parents bought her a saxophone, which she played all four years of high school. As a senior she went with the band to the National Music Festival in Grand Junction, Colorado. During her high school years Betty also served as an organist in the Second Ward and danced in two church-wide dance festivals at Salt Air on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

While at Utah State Agricultural College Betty earned a major in business education and secretarial science with English and library science minors. She was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority.

During high school Betty dated Gordon Crowther. This friendship continued until he was drafted after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and sent first to North Africa and then to Italy. At the end of the war they were married Dec. 12, 1945, in the Logan LDS Temple. While Gordon was finishing his degree in Logan, his father Edward N. Crowther learned that the home at 269 Bannock Street in Malad was for sale. They took it. During their first two years back in Malad, Betty and Gordon lost two infant sons. Then Betty took the job as Malad High School librarian. At the time there was no library so she organized one. On March 10, 1951, Betty gave birth to their daughter Jan. Bob joined her after two years, and then after Betty and Gordon lost an infant daughter in 1956, Becky finished the family in 1958.

Betty’s mother taught her to play the piano and sing. Betty went on to serve as a ward or stake organist for 35 years. She set up the Malad Second Ward library; taught Primary music, Young Women, and Relief Society; and served in the Spanish extraction program.

When Becky reached pre-school age, Betty returned to Malad High School to work as librarian, junior prom advisor, and a teacher for 27 years till she retired in 1986. For many years Betty and Gordon sang in their ward choir and in the Malad Community Chorus. She was also a member of the Malad Fine Arts Club.

At retirement Betty enjoyed her roses, their large garden, and visiting grandchildren. Gordon and she also served in the Guatemala City Temple, the Washington, D.C. Temple, and the Logan Temple. Her deepest sorrows were Gordon’s death on Nov. 22, 1999, the loss of grandsons David Crowther and Scott Hiatt, and the death of her younger sister Carol Dawn. Enduring to the end was simply tough, but it did make possible living to see the births of 19 great-grandchildren. Betty passed away at Oneida County Long Term Care Facility on Aug. 4, 2014, at the age of 92. She is survived by her sister Kathryn Moon, her brother Samuel Allen Hendricks, Jr. and his wife Sharon, sister-in-law Valene Turner, daughter Jan Myers and her husband Al, son Robert Gordon Crowther and his wife Anne, daughter Becky Hiatt and her husband Keith, grandchildren Christine Smith and her husband Dustin, Angela Thompson and her husband Aaron, Craig Shelton Hiatt and his wife Susie, Elizabeth Benedict and her husband Jared, Rebecca Bytheway and her husband Glenden, Jill Sulich Hiatt, Jeffrey Gordon Crowther and his wife Karissa, Kate Anne Baughan and her husband Kasey. Betty’s surviving great-grandchildren include MaCall Annila Smith, Landon Wendell Smith, Amelia Benedict, William Alva Thompson, Raegan Christine Smith, Madeline Rivka Hiatt, Mason Robert Benedict, Scott Gustaf Hiatt, Paisley Smith, Piper Jenny Thompson, Brant Russell Benedict, Gordon Kelly Bytheway, Rosemary Ashira Hiatt, Calvin Dennis Hiatt, Phineas James Thompson, Imogene Bytheway, Brooklyn Kaye Crowther, Eden Joanne Hiatt, and Jordyn Elizabeth Crowther. Preceding her in death were son Gordon Paul Crowther, a second infant son, and daughter Jill Crowther, parents Samuel Allen and Georgia Marteal Hendricks, husband William Gordon Crowther, sister Carol Dawn Willie and her husband Carl, sisters-in-law Margaret Harris and her husband Dick, Lucille Howes, Leonore Bassett and ShaRon Jones, brothers-in-law Neal and Berthel Crowther, granddaughters Kimberly Myers and Melinda Myers, and grandsons David Kelly Crowther and Scott William Hiatt.

The Betty Crowther family extends heartfelt thanks to home health care professional angels Karen Day and Ginny Christensen; to the expert, patient, careful staff of Oneida County Long Term Care Facility; to the watchful, loving Malad Sixth Ward bishopric and Relief Society, and to friends within and without the facility who have watched over Betty for many years.Funeral services will be held on Saturday, August 9 at 12 noon in the Malad LDS 6th Ward Chapel, 200 W. 400 N. Friends may visit with the family from 10:30-11:45 a.m. at the church prior to the service. Burial will follow in the Malad City Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.horsleyfuneralhome.com