Betty May Mathisen

BETTY MAY MATHISEN
Betty May (Hornecker) was born on May 10, 1928 at the old stone Kimble-Schneider
house still standing at Milford, 6 miles north of Lander. She was the sixth child and second ,
daughter of John and Mary (Doane) Hornecker. She passed away on Tuesday, November 6th at the age of 84 at Westward Heights Nursing Home in Lander, Wyoming.
Betty grew up on the Hornecker Ranch one mile west of Lander on Squaw Creek, where her grandfather had homesteaded in 1884 and her father, John, was born in 1890. Sheloved the out-of-doors and riding horses, working cattle and going hunting with her father. She is descended from several pioneer families in the Lander area including the Horneckers, Doanes, Averys and Crittendens. Betty attended grade school, junior high and graduated from Fremont County Vocational High School in Lander in May, 1946.
She loved to go to dances at liams Barn and at the Grange Hall at Milford. She met local cowboy, Bob Mathisen, and became engaged to him in the fall of 1945 while he was serving in World War II as a sailor aboard the U.S.S. North Carolina. They were married shortly after Bob's return from the war, on June 4, 1 946 at the Hornecker Ranch. Their first home was a small homemade trailer that sat at the south end of City Park; later that year they lived in a sheep wagon at Pacific Springs to help put up hay and during the winter of 1946-47 lived in a sheep wagon on Sand Draw to help move sheep camps for Art Faulkner of the Yellowstone Ranch. Betty later worked in the Fremont County Clerk's and Fremont County Clerk of Court's office from 1948-51 and also helped run a bowling alley she and Bob helped build on North Second Street in partnership with Denzel Burns and Wendell Rouse. Bob worked on ranches and worked as a deputy in the Fremont County Sheriffs Office from 1951-52. Their only daughter, Jean Ann, was born in 1951 in Lander. Bob joined the Wyoming Highway Patrol in 1952 and the family moved several times over the years, spending Jean's growing up years in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Betty worked in the Lincoln County Clerk's Office, later in the Fremont County Assessor's Office, and became First Deputy in the Teton County Clerk's Office in Jackson. She worked a total of 20 years in private enterprises and county government, retiring in 1980. They moved back to Lander in 1977 and Bob retired from the Highway Patrol after a 27-year career in 1979; then worked as a Captain in the Fremont County Sheriffs Office another 7 years. Betty was in 4-H as a girl and was a 4-H counselor in Kemmerer and a long-time member of the Windmill Homemaker's Club at Lander.
Bob and Betty both loved to spend time traveling and during several trips traveled through all the western states excepting Alaska and Hawaii with their daughter, Jean. They also loved to spend time at Jean's cabin at Atlantic City and roam the hills and countryside around Lander and attending Cowboy Poetry Gatherings in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.. Over the years they lived in Casper, Kemmerer, Lander, Rock Springs, Jackson, Sheridan and back to Lander and loved to explore the country around each of these communities. Betty and Bob knew no strangers and had many friends across the state of Wyoming and other locales. After Bob's final retiremen in 1986, Betty helped him in teaching 55 Alive Defensive Driving courses for AARP across the state for 10 years.
Bob and Betty celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on June 4, 1996. Bob passed away on April 29, 2002, just a little over a month short of their 56th wedding anniversary. Their daughter Jean, married Ronald R. Haugen on July 3, 2003 at Lander.. Ron passed away on September 6, 201 1 at Lander. Due to failing health, Betty spent the last years of her life at Westward Heights Care Center in Lander.
Betty was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Lander. She was preceded in death by her husband Bob, son-in-law, Ronald R. Haugen; parents John and Mary (Doane Hornecker); mother and father-in-law, Pearl (Ross) and Walter Mathisen; sister Mrs. Edna Jean Irvine and her husband K.C. Tex Irvine; brothers: Albert and wife Betty Lou (liams), John M. "Jack", Harold Kenneth "Kink", and Ralph Hornecker and wife, Minetta; brothers-in-law Bill Mathisen, Darrel "Bub" Mathisen, and Loren "Babe" Mathisen; and nephews Duane Irvine and Mick Hornecker; nieces Charlene and Darlene Mathisen, and sister-in-law, Shirely Mathisen; and her grandparents Frank and Anna (Avery Doane) and Albert and Carrie (Crittenden) Hornecker of Milford and Lander.
She is survived by her daughter Jean Mathisen Haugen of Lander, step-grandson Josh Haugen of Fairbanks, Alaska, great-grandaughters Alyssa and Kaylee of Alaska and Iowa; brother Donald Hornecker of Sqauw Creek and wife, Shirley; sister Marietta Twitchell and husband Anciel Twitchell of Fort Washakie; sister-in-law June Hornecker Smail; numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, and many friends across Wyoming.
Services will be held on Friday, November 9th at 2PM at the First United Methodist Church in Lander; Pastor Calhoun will be officiating; burial to follow at Mount Hope Cemetery next to her husband, Bob, and son-in-law, Ron Haugen. Viewing will be at the Church, under the direction of Hudson's Funeral Home of Lander. Memorials may be sent to the First United Methodist Church, the Lander Senior Center or the Museum of the American West.



Funeral Home:
Hudson's Funeral Home
680 Mount Hope Drive
Lander, WY
US 82520