Betty Lee Boone

Betty Lee Hock was born in Collinsville, Illinois to John Isadore and Agnes Hock. This was after WWI and just before the start of the Great Depression. Betty was the eldest of three sisters and she cared for her youngest sister, Gladys (known as Cookie), and helped with the cooking and house as her mother was ill and bedridden. When they moved out of the city into the rural suburban area of Oaklawn, my mother told stories how she and her middle sister, Dorothy, got into mischief in the neighborhood and on their chicken farm. Times were hard and everyone struggled, but their father had work as a truck driver and later as a mechanic at the Ford Motor Company. They survived with eggs and chickens and their father’s hard work. As a teen, Betty was able to drive into Chicago with her father to attend high school and to finally graduate, unlike many teens in her neighborhood.

She loved the idea of becoming a teacher. This was her dream. But as there was no money for college, Betty went to work. By this time the US was involved in WWII. Betty was working for Firestone Tire Co. and joined in the domestic war effort. After the war she was working at Western Electric Company where she met Ray Boone, her supervisor and an Army veteran of WWII. They married in 1946 and moved to California with the rest of her family. They bought a lot and built a house in Rosemead, CA. Carolyn was born in 1949 and then came Patricia in 1952.

Betty was a stay-at-home mother in the early years, but she loved reading stories to her daughters, helping them with their homework, teaching them arts and crafts (sewing, puppet-making, making Christmas and Easter ornaments, leather tooling). She did not drive in those days but she and the girls walked to the park for swimming lessons, to church, and to the public library to check out books and participate in the summer reading programs. She was the leader of a Girl Scout troop for 2 years. She loved reading, writing poems and short stories, playing the guitar and bowling in her bowling league. She joined our father in his love of family camping trips and enjoyed visiting most of the State and National Parks in the western states. They also loved train adventures and studying western and Native American culture in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. They purchased a lot in Fawnskin, Big Bear and thus began the long process of building a cabin, our father’s passion.

Betty joined the County Library System working at an entry level, but then became a Library Assistant. She felt that this choice was the next best thing to being a teacher! She loved helping the patrons and especially loved reading to the children and teaching them songs and crafts. They loved her popular Storytimes! She eventually taught Ray about her passion, which was foreign and/or exotic travel. They explored the world with trips to Hawaii, Alaska, Europe, Greece, the UK and Ireland. She was always eager for the learning adventure of travel and exploration of new and exciting places!

Betty retired from Library Services to care for Ray after his stroke. After he passed, she herself suffered a stroke and was under the care of her daughters. She accomplished her dreams to teach through her work in the library, to travel through the Southwest and abroad, to own a cabin and/or a ranch (she owned an Arizona ranch parcel) and to live to 100 years old. These goals mostly came true. She was a warm and loving mother and grandmother. She lived a very good life!

Betty is survived by Daughters: Carolyn Boone Fernandez, Patricia Boone, Grandsons: Christopher and Marcus Fernandez (Alissa), and Great grandsons: Michael, Lucas and Maximus Fernandez.