Betty Louise Hayden was born on July 23, 1932 to parents Manford E. and Iva M. (Yadon) Sullivan in Fairview, MT. She lived in the Four Mile Community the first four years of her life. In 1936 her parents moved to Fairview. During the war her parents moved to Idaho in 1942. She attended the Worley School from September to January when they again returned to Fairview. In 1943, her parents again worked in defense plants in Portland, OR, where Betty attended the sixth grade in the Lents School. In 1944, her parents purchased a farm north of Fairview where she lived until she was married.
In 1949, Betty was married to Wilbur Hayden of Fairview. They lived in Fairview all of their married lives except for the year and a half that they spent in Portland, OR in 1956 and 1957. They were married for 57 years until Wilbur passed away on August 16, 2006.
Betty was always a part-time worker. That was the only way she would take a job because she always said she already had a job she loved. That job was raising their five children, plus part-time with her other boys John and David. She worked as manager of the cream station in Fairview for three years, scale lady for Holly Sugar for 11 years, typist at the Clerk and Recorders office, assistant manager at a fruit plant in Oregon, bookkeeper at Westland Oil, for the Hayden Building business (which they started in 1969 and turned over to their sons in 2005) and then again at the Waterhole which they owned for seven years.
Betty received so much joy just being with her family. It didn’t matter what they were doing, it was great, and that included Wilbur’s family whom she loved like her own. She was an avid bowler for 50 years, read as much as she could, always had a puzzle on the card table, liked to hoe and pull weeds, loved to play cards, quilting and loved a good argument but didn’t like to fight.
Betty is preceded in death by her parents Manford and Iva Sullivan, her husband Wilbur, brother Bill Sullivan, sister Elmina Cook, daughter Susan Martell, and grandsons Jason and Jim Martell.
She is survived by her daughters Linda (Brent) Kohlman and Patsy (Stan) Dean, sons Doug Hayden and Chris (Amy) Hayden, son-in-law Dan Martell and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.