Elizabeth 'Betty' May, 80

Elizabeth “Betty” May, 80, passed away on Aug. 29, 2009, at the Hospice of Spokane, Wash. Private services were held.

Betty was born on May 23, 1929, in Indianapolis, Ind. After high school she attended Indiana University Extension in conjunction with St. Vincent’s hospital (two years) for nurse training.

She married and had three children: Dennis, Colleen and Tim. When the children grew up she divorced and revived her nurse’s training, which led to her career as a respiratory therapist in an Indianapolis hospital.

She has always loved people and enjoyed applying her skills making her patients comfortable. After several years at the hospital she began contracting out her services to various nursing homes.

Eventually she retired, remarried and traveled to Michigan before returning to Indianapolis. After her second husband died she decided to join her son, Tim, in Idaho and settled in Bonners Ferry in 1999.

Betty was never one to just sit around so she spent more than 10 years working part-time in a large discount store located near Sandpoint, Idaho. She maintained the same outgoing people skills she developed early in life making many friends through work, businesses she patronized, and neighbors.

People were not her only friends — she always took care of stray dogs and cats in the neighborhood.

Survivors include sons Dennis Patton of Vacaville, Calif., and Tim Patton of Naples, Idaho; a sister, Joan Randolph of Medina, Ohio; and grandchildren Jonathan Patton of Reno, Nev., and Anna May Dalforno of South Tahoe, Calif.