Betty Nelson

“The World Has Lost a Beautiful Woman”
Betty Blake Nelson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 14, 1924 to Charles Weston Blake and Echo Iverson Blake.  In her early years she spent her summers in the sheep camps with her parents near Manilla, Utah and Evanston, Wyoming, where she developed a love for all of the out of doors and horses.  She attended public schools in Salt Lake City, and Evanston.  She graduated from Evanston High School in 1942.  She attended the University of Utah before marrying Martin J. Harris in 1943.  They were later divorced.  In 1954 she married Pierce “Pete” Nelson to whom she was married until he died in 1986.  They spent more than 30 wonderful years together in Evanston, camping, traveling and raising a family of two boys and two girls.  The next 20 years she spent summers and falls in Evanston enjoying friends and the mountains she loved, and the winters and springs in Overton, Nevada where she enjoyed time with friends, desert, Lake Meade and  riding on the back of motorcycles well into her 70’s.  She shared the last several years of her life with a very special friend, Lee Harris.  Every afternoon about four they would play cards and drink a toddy before dinner.  Their bond was very strong.
Betty lived life to its fullest.  She was an accomplished cook, loved to dance, and painted many beautiful oil paintings of places she loved.  She loved her family dearly and was a wonderful mom and grandma.  She was deeply loved and appreciated by all family and friends.  She was preceded in death by her daughter, Elma Gay “EG” Nelson Burch and her husband, Pierce Nelson.  She is survived by her son Weston Harris (Jacki), her daughter Anne Nelson, and her son Chris Nelson (Dale), 11 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
Graveside services will be held at the Evanston City Cemetery at 12 noon on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 followed by a celebration of Betty’s life at the Legal Tender in Evanston.