April 29, 1931 ~ April 12, 2021
Betty Massey
Betty Lorraine Boice was born on April 29, 1931 to Edwin and Mary Boice in Manassa, Colorado. She was the second daughter in a family of five daughters (LaRee, Verla, Maevonne, Betty and Gladys) and two sons (Dale and Dean). She grew up in rural communities in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. Betty was an avid reader from the start. Her youngest sister, Gladys, recalls that when Betty was just starting to read in school, she was even willing to forego a rare train ride from Alamosa to Los Angeles with her mother because she had just started, Dick and Jane to read and didn’t want to miss out on what happened to the dog “Spot”. Gladys also recalled that it was occasionally left to “the girls” to light the stove and start preparing dinner when their mother got out to help a neighbor. Once, however, Betty and her sister came home from school and were immediately so absorbed in their reading that they were sitting in their coats in the cold living room. Her mother wasn’t particularly pleased to come home and undo the assigned tasks. There was reportedly an impact on the two culprits. Gladys credits Betty with introducing running in Bountiful, Colorado. Betty ran from Bountiful to the nearest post office in La Jara, three miles away, to pick up the mail, but she was frequently stopped by friendly drivers on the freeway who would ask if she needed help. Throughout her life, Betty continued to lead an active lifestyle and even defied bear encounters while jogging in Alaska.
Betty graduated magna cum laude from Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado in 1953. Shortly after graduation, Betty left home to fly to New York and on to Germany to marry the first love of her life, Herbert Hiroshi Oba, who was then stationed as a paramedic in Landstuhl. When she married Herb, Betty chose to love those who advise against an “interracial” marriage. After Herb’s business trip was over, they returned to the San Luis Valley and she began her career as a teacher and mother. Their first son, Gary, was born in 1955 and Douglas was born two years later. Both Betty and Herb had fulfilling careers as educators, teaching first in Hooper, Colorado, and then moving to Meeker, Colorado, where Betty taught in elementary school and Herb was the headmaster. Because of their experience of applying innovative teaching practices in rural communities, they were invited to teach a Summer Methods course at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks for new teachers teaching in remote Alaskan villages. They spent many summers traveling to Fairbanks with their boys to help these young teachers. Eventually they moved to Dillingham, Alaska, and later to St. Mary’s, Alaska, where she continued to teach elementary school and Herb was the superintendent. In Dillingham, under the guidance of friendly neighbors who became close friends, Betty learned how to fish for salmon, some of which she can do, and dump trucks. After three decades of dedicated educators, they retired to Gainesville, Florida, where they helped care for Doug’s two young children. Lynn, her first grandchild, proudly remembers the time when “Grandma taught me to read and instilled the love of reading into my life.”
Betty’s life was also full of service to many others, and the retirement years provided more opportunities to expand in that capacity. She and Herb completed a year-long service mission for Latter-day Saints Church of Jesus Christ in San Francisco, working primarily with Spanish-speaking families. They later spent a year in Jiaozuo, China, as a volunteer teaching English at a university. After spending some time in their hut upriver from Meeker, Colorado, in Buford and building and shortly thereafter selling a house in Grand Junction, Colorado, they continued their world trips, including Germany, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa and Japan to see Gary and his family. Herb died in August 1993 after 40 years of marriage. Betty continued to live in Buford and lived with Gary and his family in southern Taiwan for some time, teaching English at several universities and colleges.
In April 1998, Betty married Jarrell Massey. Friends in the Meeker Ward invited the two to dinner and said they had “monopolized the conversation” and made many connections, including the fact that they both lived in Manassa, Colorado. Betty began a new life that included traveling extensively in northwest Colorado, both with Jarrell’s work at Northwest Colorado Ranching for Wildlife and with his responsibilities as Meeker Stake Patriarch. Jarrell’s family gave Betty a warm hug and made her part of their extended family. They served together as temple workers at Vernal Utah Temple and together they helped lead an addiction recovery program. Jarrell loved gardening and all summer filled her car with garden products to share freely with Church members and friends. Later, when they moved from Meeker to Rangely, Jarrell planted fruit trees that would not grow upriver in Buford and that had even larger vegetable patches.
Jarrell’s death in March 2015 brought great grief to Betty again. While she had faced the challenge of living alone with her trusted gold lab, Shoji, after her death, after Jarrell’s death, she chose to live with Gary in Yokohama, Japan. A few years later, when Gary retired from the State Department, they both moved to Buford, where she was back home in her beautiful cabin among the aspens. During her final years she continued her travels and spent extended stays with Doug and his wife Ellen in Germany and later in Italy.
Betty was blessed with a rich Mormon pioneering legacy and had a deep and consistent belief in God. She died peacefully after courageously battling dementia, which quickly developed after breaking her hip in a fall earlier this year.
Betty is survived by two siblings, Gladys Tolbert (John) and Dean Boice (Beverly), two sons, Gary and Douglas Oba (Ellen), seven grandchildren, Alisa Christensen (Allen), Ken Oba (Leslie) and Lynn Holm (Janson) . Eric Oba, Sara Wood (Quinton), Antonio Oba and Elijah Oba as well as 11 great-grandchildren. Her parents, husbands and sisters LaRee, Verla and Maevonne, as well as her brother Dale, had preceded death.
Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 24th in the Meeker Ward Chapel of Latter-day Saints Church of Jesus Christ, 903 Third St., Meeker, Colorado. The family asked participants to wear face masks. The service can also be viewed via zoom. Please contact [email protected] for zoom access information. In lieu of flowers, commemorative donations can be made to the Meeker Public Library (490 Main St., Meeker, Colorado, 81641) for the purchase of books for children and teenagers.
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