Elizabeth Ann Wheaton

Elizabeth “Betty” Wheaton, 90 years young passed away of natural causes on March 17, 2020. She was a resident of Highgate Assisted Living in Bozeman, Montana. My Mom was born on July 6, 1929 to Robert and Anna Wallis in Syracuse, New York. While living there she met and married Grover “Dutch” Wheaton in 1952 and had one daughter, me, Suzanne, currently residing in Salt Lake City, Utah.



Mom graduated from Syracuse Central High School in 1947 and attended Powelson Business Institute and LeMoyne College. The Carrier Corporation in Syracuse, New York employed her. After marrying my dad in 1952, they continued to live in Syracuse and enjoyed the outdoors together.



We moved across the US from New York; living in Oklahoma, Minnesota and Montana. We also planned many a summer vacation that resulted in visiting 42 of the 50 states. My mom was an accomplished skier, tennis player, sailor and cultivator of many a plant and vegetable in her garden. They built their forever home in Bozeman where both lived and retired. In Bozeman, my mom worked as a secretary in the music department at Bozeman Public Schools. She very much loved the experience and the people she worked with as well as listening to the students practice every day (some actually getting better as the school year progressed)!



While she and my dad were together, they took up sailing, my dad’s passion and enjoyed many summers sailing around the Pacific and ports off the State of Washington up to Friday Harbor and the San Juan Islands into Canada where they docked their boat in Semiahmoo Marina, not far from Vancouver, Canada. They enjoyed years of sailing adventures together onboard their sailboat up until my dad’s death in 1995.



My mom travelled extensively after my dad’s death taking trips to Africa, Egypt, Peru and Budapest, Hungary to see where her parents were born. She had so many beautiful pictures to share and keep as memories.



My husband Jim and I of Salt Lake City, Utah survive her. Along with her younger brother Robert Wallis of Norfolk, Virginia. Nieces and nephews living in Norfolk, VA, Washington, DC, Albany, New York, Dallas, Texas and San Diego, California. She leaves behind her soul mate Callie a little red poodle who was lovingly adopted by a dear friend. She also leaves behind the friends of many years that knew both my mom and my dad and of those spent days and hours helping her through the transition of leaving her home and moving into assisted living. In addition, the new friends and caregivers that gave her love and compassion over these last few years. She was the best mom ever, and will be forever missed. Do not forget I love you always.



Memorial donations in her name may be made to the Bozeman Public Schools at www.bsd7.org.



(Click on OUR DISTRICT, scroll down to BOZEMAN SCHOOL FOUNDATION, click on that. Go to THE FOUNDATION header and click the drop down on WAYS TO GIVE, scroll down to MEMORIAL DONATIONS and follow the instructions.) Thank you.