Betty Johnson

Betty Jean Johnson, 86, of Missoula, passed away on June 12, after struggling with dementia. 

The oldest of six children, Betty was born to Woodrow and Belva Hipsher on August 3, 1937, in Kahoka, Missouri.  She spent much of her youth in Igloo, South Dakota, where she enjoyed playing in band, acting in plays, helping the family operate the local theater, and working at a soda fountain.  She graduated from Provo High School in Igloo and from nursing school in Rapid City, South Dakota.

She met Norbert Johnson in the summer of 1958 at a diabetic summer camp in Rapid City, where he was camp manager and she was camp nurse.  She married him that fall, and they moved to Great Falls, where they lived for 64 years before moving to Missoula two years ago. 

While living in Great Falls, Betty worked for many years as a nurse, first at the old Deaconess Hospital, later at the old Great Falls Clinic, and finally for different doctors in private practice.   Her twenty-five years of supporting patients was interrupted a couple of times to care for her boys, Todd and Ross, and to be a full-time mom.

As a mom, Betty put in a lot of love-filled overtime sitting through meets and games and concerts and plays, helping complete projects and assignments and essays, assisting with pets, nursing wounds, reading aloud, baking special goodies, and hosting many of her sons’ friends.  More importantly, she modeled how to live in this world, emphasizing the need for tolerance, acceptance, and always helping people.  Along with Todd and Ross, Betty nurtured and mothered many others.  

She was a 65-year member of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and was active in many activities there.  Betty was also a member of Junior League, participating in many events, most memorably the “Follies” and Art in the Park.  Being a long-time member of PEO was very gratifying for her.  After the death of her son Ross, she was also a member of PFLAG and a loving advocate. 

Betty truly loved being a good friend and neighbor, being a Guppies Swim Team mom, spending time at Lake Five and Bigfork, skiing, reading, taking photographs, collecting dolls and recipes and art, watching movies, cooking, and entertaining family and friends, especially during holidays. 

She fully embraced and gave everything to her three f’s:  faith, family, and friends.  With those three pillars, Betty generously spread love, light, empathy, gratitude, and joy to so many.  “To everything add love,” was a favorite saying of hers.

It was not unusual for fun-spirited Betty to leave singing phone messages, yodel across a lake at night or in the mountains while picking huckleberries, scream happily while sailing, or to do her best renditions of “The Sound of Music” while skiing the Golden Goose at Showdown.  Her laugh was infectious, and it often bounced off the walls during cards or Monopoly. 

Betty is survived by her husband Norbert, son Todd (Katie George), grand-dog Gus, brothers Jim Hipsher (Sarah), John Hipsher (Lee), and Woody Hipsher (Pat), sister Mary Ringer (Fred), and many nieces and nephews. 

She will be dearly missed, but we will smile when we think of her making snow angels in her swimsuit.

A memorial service will follow sometime later this summer.

Memorials in Betty’s honor may be given to Eagle Mount Great Falls or to the Great Falls School Foundation. 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Betty Johnson, please visit our floral store.