Bette J. Valentine

11/25/1925 — 09/28/2024

From Yakima, WA | Born in Minot, ND

Celebration of Life

Starts:
Thu, October 10, 2024, 1:00 pm
Location:
Einan’s At Sunset Funeral Home
915 Bypass Highway Bldg. H Richland, WA 99352

Bette J. Valentine

Bette passed away at the age of 98 on Saturday, September 28, 2024 in Yakima, WA. Born a preemie on Nov. 25, 1925, in Minot, North Dakota, she proved she would not only thrive, but survive to have a good long life. Her parents were Marjorie Jean (Faulds) and Phillip Peter Hollick, and she was #4 of their 8 children. As with many families during the Great Depression, they left their home and started making their way westward. They lived in Provo, Utah for awhile, before heading north to Kalispell, Mon[1]tana. Bette finished high school there, and soon her sister Phyllis talked her into moving to Seaside, OR with her. She found a bookkeeping job at the Western Auto store in Astoria, and had to ride the bus back and forth from Seaside every day to work. In the meantime her father found work at Hanford and had moved the rest of the family to Richland, WA.

In 1948 Bette & Phyllis moved to Richland to help take care of their terminally ill mother and to help their Dad take care of their 12 year old brother Pete. She found another bookkeeping job. This time with the local chain of Thrifty Drug stores. Richland had a lively night club scene at the time, and in Sept. of 1952, while out with friends, a handsome, dark haired soldier named Donald A. Valentine asked her to dance. And the rest, as they say, is history. They were married 3 months later on Dec. 23rd. They had 3 weeks together before he had to leave for duty in Germany. It would be 9 months before she could join him. Their first daughter, Patsy Jean was born there in Frankfurt. After Germany, came Ft. Lew[1]is, WA, then on to Fairbanks, Alaska where Susan Ann was born. Another short stint at Ft. Lewis, then on to Ft Bliss (El Paso), Texas, where they actually got to stay for almost 5 years. There they welcomed their last child, Robert Allen. Again orders came thru for another trip to Germany, and again no housing was available, and Bette and her 3 kids went to live with her in-laws in Ravenna, NE. It took 5 months before they could join Val in in Germany. After Germany, it was back to Ft. Bliss. Unfortunately tragedy hit and Val had a brain aneurysm and died in January 1968. A widow at 42, she knew Val wanted to be buried in Auburn, WA. but not liking the rain, she decided to move back to Richland to be near her family.

Bette slowly began rebuilding her life. To stay close to the military, she joined the VFW Auxiliary #7952. She was an active lifetime member for 53 years. She also started working for a new grocery chain named Waremart in Kennewick. A few years later, the chain changed their name to WINCO so as not to be confused with a much larger chain of stores moving their way westward from Arkansas. She worked at WINCO for 22 years and missed only 2 days of work. The company president came to her retirement party and told her that in the whole chain of stores, he was the only one who had worked longer for the company than she had.

Used to traveling, she continued to do so on her vacations from work and after retiring, until she was well into her 80’s. She said she counted 23 times she went to Hawaii. She went on several cruises in the Caribbean, a couple down to Mexico, one to Australia & New Zealand & one thru the Panama Canal. Her last cruise lasted a month and went from Greece to Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Italy, Portugal, and then across the Atlantic to disembark in Puerto Rico. She also thoroughly enjoyed a trip to the British Isles and one to Germany and Austria.

Also after retiring she and a group of other ladies started meeting to play cards, which expanded into playing darts at the VFW, making runs down to Legends Casino, & finding out of the way restaurants to try. They tried making their own wine by first stomping the grapes with their own feet. And at 75, they convinced Bette to try playing laser tag. Needless to say, they had a grand time. Even with all this hilarity, she still managed to squeeze in trips to her see her six grandchildren. She loved spoiling them as much as she could get away with, without incurring the disapproval of the parents.

As the years went on, she started slowing down. Her knees and hips started giving out. The doctors wanted to replace various joints, but she would never agree to it. She had to start using a walker and then finally the last 4 years of her life she was in a wheelchair. At the same time she was declining, so was her group of friends. They all passed away before her, and by this point her Richland siblings were gone as well. She decided to move to Yakima to be closer to her daughter Patsy. Unfortunately she was starting to also slip into dementia. She was in an Assisted Living Facility for about 6 months, when it was decided she really needed to be in Memory Care. She spent 4 years there enjoying visiting with the staff and residents, participating in as many activities as possible and just being a feisty old lady. The staff always said they enjoyed working with her and she kept them on their toes with her feistiness. She had a strong will to keep on living, but her body finally said it was time to go. We will miss her dearly!

Bette is survived by her 3 children: Patsy, Susan & Bob & daughter-in-law Patti, and her 6 grandchildren: Jacob, William, Ellery, Anthony, Zachary (Danielle) and Justin. She was preceded in death by her husband Donald (Val) Valentine, her son-in-law Buz Wilcox and by all 7 of her siblings: Mildred, Phyllis, Wanda, Jim, Jean, Joan & Pete and all their spouses. For the one born with the least chance of survival, she survived all of them. She was indeed a special lady!

Funeral services will be at Einan’s Chapel at Sunset Gardens in Richland on Thursday, October 10th at 1 p.m. with a reception following at the event center. A private family gravesite burial will be held on Saturday to lay her to rest finally at her husband’s side, in Auburn, WA.

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