Teaching us how to live our best lives
Betty Stone on the eve of her 100th birthday.
Courtesy photo
Last week, I had the pleasure of talking with one of the most interesting women I know. Betty Stone is celebrating a milestone birthday today, although she started the celebration early over the weekend with her family and friends and a homemade Texas chocolate sheet cake, her favorite.
In the course of my conversation with the former first lady of Coeur d’Alene, we talked about a vast array of topics from current events to technology to the olden days and just a wee bit of gossip. When Betty was born in 1923 in the small town of Winchester, Idaho, Calvin Coolidge was president and her family didn’t have indoor plumbing. She learned to drive during the Depression era at age 16. When I asked if she was still driving, she said no; at age 98, she couldn’t pass the driver’s test. But she still has her car and 82 years of being a licensed driver!
During WWII, Betty was a welder in the Portland shipyards with her income paying for her college education. She earned an English degree at the University of Idaho. Back then she said there were only three things a woman could become ... a nurse, a teacher or a stenographer. She married her high school sweetheart, Ray Stone, in 1944 and they moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1955.
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