Betty Jane Garrett, née Johnson, departed this life on August 22, 2022, in Durant, Okla. She was born on August 26, 1925, to Edward C. Johnson and Albina R. Hallock in Buffalo, Okla.
When her father, Edward, died in 1927, Albina took Betty to live with her sister Nettie E. Johnson and her uncle John C. Johnson, Sr. who lived in Boise City, Okla. and operated the First State Bank.
Betty had a happy childhood with John and Nettie; and at the age of 11, with her consent, they adopted her. Upon completion of the 8th grade in the Boise City School system, Betty shifted her schooling to Mount Carmel Academy in Wichita, Kan., where her birth mother, Albina, had attended high school. Oklahoma University was her next destination where she studied business. World War II interrupted Betty’s college work and she returned to the First State Bank to assist her father. Many close friendships resulted from her work at the bank, and it was there that she met her future husband, John H. “Johnny” Garrett, who upon returning from service in the Air Force, was working in his parent’s abstract business.
Johnny Garrett and Betty Johnson were married in September 1948 shortly after she completed her business degree at OU. From that marriage came two boys, John Marshall and Dr. Edward Miller. The Garrett’s first home was a mining shack moved from Dawson, N.M. to Boise City and completely remodeled by Johnny and Betty. The family moved into their second home, near the football stadium, in 1960.
For more than 70 years, Betty was an active member of the congregation at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and she often recalled carrying her little red chair from the previous Sunday School basement to the new building at its current location. Many Garrett family members have passed through St. Paul’s either at life’s beginning or ending. She loved the rituals of Sunday morning worship, singing in the choir, and long-term friendships. Her church family has been very important to her throughout her life.
Following Johnny’s lung surgery in 1965, Betty became his full-time caregiver until his death in 1974. At that point she realized that getting out of the house was a priority. She had many second thoughts about her ability to contribute and what avenues might be available to her. However, a door opened at the local flower and gift shop and Betty walked through it into a new world with new friends and new outlets for her kindness and artistic talents. Around that same time, and with the same misgivings, she joined the board of directors at the First State Bank – new experiences and new friends emerged and she found an outlet for her business education from long before.
A broken hip in 2010 along with subsequent surgery and rehabilitation took Betty to Durant, Okla., where she became more familiar with that part of the state and became accustomed to seeing her grandchildren Meagan, Adam, and Evan and her great-grandchildren Kane and Londyn. Once she gained confidence and mobility, she returned to her beloved home in Boise City. Santa Fe Trail Daze celebration, held in Boise City, crowned Betty their Queen in 2012 and she presided over that year’s festivities. Following Ed’s cancer diagnosis later in 2012, she returned to Durant to be closer to him with the added benefit of more contact with the younger generations of the Garrett family.
An apartment in Durant was her home for several years before Betty made the decision to move into an assisted living center. It was not an easy decision because she valued her independence so highly. She often joked about how poorly they fed the “inmates” but always accepted that it was her decision to live in the facility and that she truly needed the support it provided. As was true in each of her previous phases of life she made friends, nurtured those around her, took care of plants, knitted and crocheted, and was grateful for her blessings.
Betty is survived by her son, Marshall (Leslie) of Boise, Idaho; her daughter-in-law, Valeria of Durant, Okla.; grandchildren: Meagan (and great-children Kane and Londyn) of Paris, Texas, Adam of Durant, Okla., and Dr. Evan of Tahlequah, Okla.
Services in Durant were held at the First Presbyterian Church on Friday, August 26, 2022..
Boise City services will be held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 28, 2022, with graveside services to follow.