Betty Harriet (White) Wilson of Colfax passed away Friday, Nov. 11, 2011.

Betty was born May 18, 1925, to Sammie A. and Gladys Hutchens White, in Pomeroy. In 1937, the family began farming in the Green Hollow area near Colfax. Betty graduated from Colfax High School in 1944. She was proud to be a Bulldog and enjoyed attending class reunions. She worked as a telephone operator for Pacific Telephone and Telegraph and later as a switchboard operator for Washington State University. Recently, Betty was employed by the Daily Bulletin as a carrier for Route 1. She enjoyed the exercise and interaction with staff and her customers.

Betty married Elmer J. Wilson Sept. 9, 1951, at her parents' home. They began their married life working as a hired hand and cook on a ranch. Later, they moved to Palouse and then retired to Colfax in 1989. Betty participated in 4-H as a young girl and later as a leader of the Tricky Fingers 4-H Club. She was also a member of the Parvin Grange and later the North-South Palouse Grange.

She enjoyed following her children's and grandchildren's activities, sewing, gardening, fishing, mushroom hunting in the Blue Mountains, going to yard sales and the Grandmother's Thrift Shop, and solving Sudoku puzzles.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband in 1996; her parents; and her favorite son-in-law, Gary Floether. She is survived by one daughter, Nancy Floether of Odessa, Wash.; her sons and daughters-in-law, Monty and Carolyn Wilson of Colfax and Richard and Prisca Wilson of Spokane Valley; her grandchildren, Jennifer (Josh) Rankin, Adam Wilson, Keith Wilson, Katie Wilson, Matt (Brittany) Wilson, and Kyle Wilson; and great-grandsons, Garrett Farrage, Jude Wilson, and Kadin Rankin; her sister, Helen Feragen of Glendive, Mont.; brother Donald E. White of Colfax; two nieces and four nephews; as well as cousins, friends and customers on her route.

Funeral services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Thursday in the chapel of Bruning Funeral Home of Colfax. Burial will follow at the Colfax Cemetery. The family suggests memorials be made to the Colfax Fireman's Toy Box, 400 N. Mill St., or the Colfax Food Bank Friends in Service to Humanity (FISH). Online guest book is at www.bruning

funeralhome.com