Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

Both husband and wife were shipped to Europe. Stationed in France, Betty was to be promoted to major when she became pregnant. "She was a captain in the most highly decorated WAC unit in the European Theater," said Veronica. "She received the Member of the British Empire medal, which was presented to her by King George." She was shipped stateside in the summer of 1945, returning to Cleveland, where she spent the next eighteen years raising children and involving herself in civic causes.

Betty had always wanted to go west. When Robert died from peritonitis at age forty-six, she rented a Dodge motor home, loaded up her four kids, and spent the summer touring "Colorado, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, a little bit of Utah," Veronica remembers. "But we kept ending up back in Santa Fe. Mom just loved it, and so did I."

Please see Volume 1 for complete text.
Photo ©1997 by Joanne Rijmes