Beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of August 13, 2019 at the age of 93.   She lived a rich, full life and blessed the lives of every person who knew her. She is survived by her husband Vernon Jay Carlson having been married for over 69 years.  She is also survived by seven of her eight children.  Kathy Croxall (Gary), Edward (Carrie), David (Elizabeth), Steven (Lucy), Glen (Rosemary), Richard (Chris), and Michael (Michelle).  She was preceded in death by her daughter Linda Measom (Gary).  She is also survived by her Sister Mildred Maw, age 98.  She has a posterity of 37 grandchildren and 90 great grandchildren.

Betty was born in Sanderson, Texas, her family being the only members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”  in the town.  Her father, Roy Angus Hurst, was a railroad man based in Sanderson and her mother, Mildred Theresa Call Hurst was a homemaker.  Both her parents, Roy Angus on the Hurst side and Mildred on the Call side were born and raised in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.  She came from a great Church heritage on both sides of her family.  They held church in their home on Sundays, with her mother teaching her gospel lessons.  She and her brothers and sisters sometimes went to the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in town and during the summers they would attend the vacation Bible School at one of the local churches. Her family moved to El Paso in 1941 when Betty was 15 years old, permitting her to attend high school there and also for her family to attend meetings at an actual church.

Upon graduation from High School in 1943, she spent one year as a student at the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy, now known as UTEP.  During that year, she worked as a telephone operator and learned how to memorize phone numbers, a skill she carried with her for her entire life.  During her first year in college, she found she loved P.E. classes, but did not enjoy chemistry.  She was on the girl’s touch football team and was so skilled at archery that she was featured on the cover of the P.E. pamphlet for UTEP, showing her shooting a bow and arrow.  After completing her first year at UTEP, she travelled to Provo, Utah and attended BYU for one year.  A good number of people recommend that she try Utah State, in Logan, so with approval of her parents and the help of family friends, she moved to Logan, changed her major from Home Economics to P.E. and became very active in the college life at Utah State.   She became an excellent swimmer and she was already a very fast runner, great dancer, along with being good at baseball, softball, football, archery and many other sports.  (She taught all her son’s how to play baseball, as well as several other sports.)  She had good posture and was asked by Utah State to be a model for one of their posters that they used for many years to teach other students.  By this time, World War 2 was over and the young service men had come home from the war and Betty had many dates with several different young men.  She graduated in August 1948 with a teaching degree for a high school P.E. teacher.   Her good friend, Caroline Sucki, got a job in Manti teaching and Betty went with her to check out the town and decided to take a job as the Manti High School P.E. teacher, starting in the fall of 1948.

While in Manti, she met Vernon, who took a liking to her right away.  Their first date was a high school dance that she and Vernon chaperoned since she was the P.E. teacher.  By October 1949, they were quite serious with each other and Vernon decided to drive her home for Christmas in 1949.    While in El Paso, Vernon talked to her father and mother, and then proposed to Betty, which she gladly accepted.  They were married on May 26, 1950 in the Manti Temple. It was day of great joy for both her and his families.

They moved to Richfield in 1950 and their first daughter, Kathy was born there in April 1951.  Betty had significant bleeding at the birth of Kathy and almost died, but Vernon and others pled with the Lord that she would live, which blessing the Lord granted.  The Dr. advised them to not have more than three children.   However, they wanted a big family and Linda and Edward being born in Richfield.

The Carlson Brother’s turkey business had a good opportunity in Spanish Fork, so in the fall of 1954, Betty and Vernon moved their small family of three children to Spanish Fork, where they have now lived for 65 years.  While in Spanish Fork, they were blessed with 5 more children, David, Steven, Glen, Richard and Michael, giving them a family of 2 daughters and 6 sons.   The birth of each child brought new joy to their lives and Betty was busy raising them while Vernon worked in the Turkey business.

Betty always supported Vernon in his church callings. In 1958, Vernon was called to be 2 ^nd counselor in the Thistle branch, which is 15 miles south of Spanish Fork.   The entire family attended there for a few years and Glen, the next son born was blessed in the Thistle Branch.  Vernon was released in 1960 and called to become a stake missionary.  Then in 1961, was called as the 2 ^nd counselor to Grant Lamb.  Those were the days of budget raising dinners and Betty, along with the other bishopric wives, cooked many dinners for the ward to raise money.  During these years, she taught Beehive class and was den mother in the Cub Scouts to her sons as they grew up.

Vernon received a call from Stake President Toronto asking him and Betty to come and meet with him at 8 AM one Sunday morning. As Betty records in her life history:  “President Toronto told Vernon in a firm and believing voice that the Lord wanted him to be the next bishop of the Spanish Fork 8 ^th ward. Vernon was humbled and overwhelmed by this call and told President Toronto ‘I can’t do it.’   I put my hand on his knee and assured him that he could do it.”  President Toronto provided a similar assurance and Vernon accepted the call.  Once again, Vernon was grateful for the support of his wife in a very demanding church calling—a calling that Betty said she always knew that Vernon would someday have.  President Toronto provided Vernon a list of men who would make good counselors and advised against picking men who would not have the support of their wives. Betty provided full support for Vernon in every church calling.

Betty was called to be a writer on the Church Wide Correlation Committee for the LDS church instruction manuals for youth in June 1974, just two weeks after Vernon was released as Bishop in 1974.  This was a calling that was specifically approved by the First Presidency, and Quorum of the Twelve, the letter to her that was signed by Thomas S. Monson, Boyd K. Packer, Marvin J. Ashton and Bruce R. McConkie stated she could not have any other calling in the ward or stake during this time.  This proved to be the most difficult assignment of her entire life and almost overwhelmed her.  Her first assignment was to write the year-long course of Sunday School lessons for the 14 year olds on the topic of Presidents of the Church. Other writing assignments followed for other church wide teaching manuals.  Betty turned her sewing room into a study with books all over it.  She travelled to Salt Lake every other week for 3 full years to meet with the other writers and the Church Correlation Committee.  The lessons she wrote were used for over a decade across the entire church.   After being released from this calling, she was called shortly thereafter as the 8 ^th ward Relief Society President.

In 1978, she was then called as the Stake Relief President, a calling in which she served with distinction for 5 years.   During this time, she hosted Sister Barbara Smith and Sister Belle Spafford who were the General President of the Relief Society at various times to address the sisters of the stake. During this time, the turkey business was going downhill and Betty was asked to be the librarian for Park Elementary School, a job she took and worked at for 12 years until she retired to serve a mission with her husband.   She also was called again as the Ward Relief Society President during this time.

Betty and Vernon accepted a call to be a missionary couple in Australia in March 1991 where they served as a senior couple for 18 months. They enjoyed their time in Australia and Betty blessed the lives of many of the sisters there.  Upon their return from Australia, they were asked to be temple workers in the Provo, Temple, where they served with pleasure for nearly 3 years, until they felt impressed by the Lord to serve another mission as a senior couple. This time, Betty and Vernon were called to the Tennessee, Knoxville Mission, leaving in April 1995 and returning in back to Spanish Fork in late 1996, when Betty was now 70 years old.

When most people would be slowing down, Betty, being young at heart, decided to join and become active in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, which she could do since a number of her ancestors had crossed the plains in 1847, 1848, and subsequent years.  After being a member for about a year, she was asked to be President of all the camps in Spanish Fork, 17 of them.

One of the greatest joys of her life was celebrating her and Vernon’s 50 ^th wedding anniversary on May 26, 2000. This was a time of great joy for her since the entire family came to Spanish Fork to Celebrate with them.   Right about this time, she was blessed with her first Great Grandchild, Courtlyne, who was named by her father in the same dress that her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Betty, had been blessed in.

While they were still young, between the ages of 74 to 82, she and Vernon decided to travel, visiting the Nauvoo temple dedication and did tour of all the church sites there, including Adam-ondi-Aham, Far West, Carthage, Independence and many other places. During this time frame, they also visited the Mormon Colonies in Mexico, went on a family cruise from California to Mexico that included all her children and their spouses and toured for nearly three weeks in Israel, a place she had always wanted to go. During this time, they also had extended visits to Alaska, including an extended cruise there and back, Hawaii, Washington D.C., New York and many other places.

Betty wrote her own life history during this time frame, closing it with her personal testimony, writing: “I know that my Heavenly Father loves me, I know that His Son, Jesus Christ, is my advocate with the Him and that he is my Older Brother.  I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.” Her testimony ended with an encouragement to all to press forward with steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.”  2 ^nd Nephi 31:20

Betty was truly a blessing to her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and all who knew her.  She will be sorely missed.

The last lines of the life history she wrote she concluded with this scripture: “I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth.”  3 John 1:4

An evening viewing will be held for Betty Carlson on Friday Evening, August 23 from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at Walker Mortuary.   Funeral Service will be August 24 at 11:00 am proceed by viewing from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 am at the Spanish Fork 8 ^th Ward Chapel, at the address of 1025 East 200 south. This will be followed by internment at the Spanish Fork Cemetery starting at 12:20 a.m. to which all are invited.