Betty Tucker

Betty Irene Tucker TWIN FALLS, ID - April 2nd, 2022 – Sixteen months from today was to be a huge birthday party. Betty Tucker, had a mortal life of 98 years, 7 months and 22 days, leaving us on Thursday, Mar. 24th, 2022 with family by her side. Betty was born in Essex, Iowa on Aug 2nd, 1923 to Ahira Mark Collins and Jennie June Rhoades Collins. She was the oldest of 5 children, all born close to 2 years apart. They farmed in Iowa until 1934 except for the summer of 1925, which they spent near Oakley, Idaho. That is where Betty's sister Marjie was born exactly 2 years after Betty. Her birthplace is recorded as Churchill, Idaho. There's also a family story about their car breaking down in the middle of Wyoming with a toddler and a pregnant wife. Many of us would expect to hear that the Great Depression that began in 1929 was the biggest hardship many farmers faced back then, but that wasn't really the case for the Collins family. The drought of 1934 caught the family without enough money to buy feed for the cows. Grandpa sold cows, that should have brought $100, for $10 to 15 a head. The family pulled up stakes, loaded everything they had on the Chevrolet truck and moved to Buffalo, Missouri. Among other things, Grandpa earned money by hauling other people's livestock to Springfield, Missouri. When they arrived in Buffalo, Betty was going into sixth grade and Marjie into fifth, but the school there alternated between teaching fifth and seventh grades one year and sixth and eighth grades the next year. That was a sixth grade year so Marjie skipped fifth grade and both girls took sixth grade. They were like twins born two years apart. In the summer of 1938 things continued to be tough for the family and they decided to go west. After a visit with family in Iowa, they headed for Oregon, where Grandpa had been born. They first visited his father, Ahira Mark Collins Sr., at Tygh Valley then moved on to the Newburg area to work picking hops. When fall came they found a house to rent in Dundee, OR and enrolled the kids in school. Grandpa and Grandma both continued to work wherever they could in order to pay the rent and buy the meager supplies for their food. A lot of meals were beans or macaroni with tomato sauce since those were cheap commodities, at twenty-five cents for ten pounds. Grandma always seemed to figure out something to make into a meal. Like most mothers, if there wasn't quite enough to go around she probably sacrificed her own portions so her children could eat. Through the thirties, there were lots of "New Deal" programs being promoted by President Roosevelt. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration were just a couple of them. Their intention was to create jobs for out-of-work people. They did road construction and other hard labor for $1 a day. Grandpa Collins thought it seemed too much like welfare and, so, avoided it. When Betty was 16, she worked for a week at a factory where the canned prunes. It was six 10-hour days and paid 30 cents an hour. Her hands were burned from handling the steaming product and the supervisor lanced the blisters with his pocket knife. At the end of the week her paycheck was $17.82 because the Social Security withholding was 1%. By the fall of 1939 England and Canada were both at war with Germany. Some Americans enlisted in the armed services of those countries because they felt so strongly about the cause. The United States quietly started a build-up of supplies and war materials expecting to aid their allies. Between 1939 and 1943 Grandpa moved the family back and forth between Oregon and Idaho wherever he could find work. From January to August of 1940 he worked as a farmhand at the Banbury farm near Buhl, Idaho. That fall they went back to Newburg, Oregon for school. Even though it wasn't a family priority, high school graduation had been Betty's goal from a young age and she brought Marjie along with her. They enrolled as seniors and both graduated the next spring. Graduation day started out with the whole family picking strawberries. Lunch consisted of a loaf of bread, a can of sardines and cupcakes (which just happened to come 7 to a package). With the United States entering World War II, there were lots of jobs available. Betty and Marjie both found work in Portland. During 1942, Grandpa Collins rented a strawberry farm, which had been taken away from Japanese people who were sent to internment camps like the one at Hunt, Idaho. Betty worked as a waitress in a Fred Meyer lunch counter. She went to visit her family over Christmas and when she came back the lunch counter was closed. After that she worked as a welder in the shipyard. She easily identified with the Rosie the Riveter character. Grandpa Collins also worked in the shipyard and for the railroad for a short time. In 1944 Betty had a baby girl, Wanda Jean in Portland. They would later move to Idaho to be near the grandparents and Betty worked as a payroll clerk for Morrison-Knudsen who was building power plants near Hagerman, Idaho. At a community dance she met Don Tucker who had recently moved to the area to work for Idaho Power Co. as a power plant operator at the Lower Malad Plant near Bliss. Within a few months, they were married. Their first home was a small travel trailer but they were soon able to move into a “company house” near the power plant. Donna was born in Nov. 1948 followed 15 months later by Steve. The company moved us to the Thousand Springs power plant before Virginia came along 3 ½ years after Steve. Somewhere in there Don also adopted Jean. Up to this point, the family had been renting homes from the power company. In about 1954 they bought a 40 acre farm which was just a few miles from Don's work. We had a few horses, a couple mules, a couple jersey cows, goats, chickens and sometimes a pig or two. We always milked the cows by hand and Betty was often the one that had to make sure it got done because Don was working a rotating shift and seemed to always be too busy to do it. We raised alfalfa, wheat and corn and had pasture for the livestock. Don's training as a machinist combined with his interest in big game hunting lead him to take two old military rifles and make them into 30-06 sporting rifles, one for him and the other for Betty. One of the favorite family stories is the year that she was the only woman in the hunting party and the only one in the group to kill an elk. On another occasion, they put in for antelope tags and she got a tag and Don didn't. And, yes, she bagged an antelope. Betty was always figuring out ways to earn money to keep things going. She worked the night shift at the Green Giant corn factory in Buhl several years. In 1963, Don transferred into the dispatching office in Twin Falls. They sold the 40 acres and purchased a 20 acre place south of Twin. Later Betty worked at Harrett's making pistol grips and at Haney Seed, sorting beans. She's always been there supporting Don in his Masonic Lodge and Shriner activities and she's probably held about every possible office in Eastern Star and Daughters of the Nile. They both have also been supportive to the youth organizations serving as Guardian and Associate Guardian over Job's Daughters during the time their granddaughters, Maggie and Jenifer were members. Over the years they participated in other activities like square dancing, and league bowling. Betty was also talented with sewing, embroidery and crochet. Surviving are her son, Steve Tucker (Jannett), South Weber, Utah; and daughter Virginia Tucker, Twin Falls, 10 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren. Betty was preceded in death by her husband Don Tucker, her parents, her 3 sisters, Marjie Schmoe, Rosalie Kuhn and Doris Clough and her brother Ed Collins, two daughters: Donna Tennant and Jeannie Brackett, one grandson, Ronald Tennant and two great grandsons, Tony Nunez and Bryant Tennant. Funeral services will be held at the Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, 2551 Kimberly Rd, Twin Falls, ID on Saturday, Apr. 2nd at 11:00am. Those wishing to greet the family may do so Saturday morning two hours prior to the services on Saturday. Those who wish may make memorial contributions to the Shriner's Children's Hospital, C/O Parke's Magic Valley Funeral Home, 2551 Kimberly Rd., Twin Falls, ID 83301. Use this link to view the Video Memorial for Betty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z2sYedYEms Use this link to view Betty's Funeral Service: https://youtu.be/7Z2sYedYEms