Elizabeth Betty Irmgard O'Shea
Elizabeth “Betty” Irmgard O'Shea, 88, died Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at her home near Bonners Ferry. She was diagnosed with cancer on Feb. 29, 2008.
Betty was born Feb. 7, 1920, to Otto and Martha Mueller in Oakland, Calif.
Betty grew up in the Oakland Bay area, the youngest of four children. She especially enjoyed the time spent working with her father on the family ranch in the Oakland foothills tending to their livestock.
At the end of her school years, Betty went to work for the family's wholesale and retail meat business in Oakland, where she met her husband, Charles W. Saunders of Nashville. They married Feb. 3, 1940.
After raising two daughters and a son in California, the couple moved to Bonners Ferry in April 1972. Charles Saunders enjoyed their new farm home for three months before dying suddenly on July 29, 1972, while visiting his daughter, Sandra, who lived nearby.
Betty took on the challenges of living alone in a new area with great courage.
She returned to California during the winter of 1975 to spend time with family and help care for their elderly mother. During this time, Betty became reacquainted with Francis “Sonny” O'Shea, a family friend who had lost his wife after a lengthy illness in 1972. They married July 12, 1975.
Francis O'Shea fell in love with Boundary County just as Charles Saunders had. The O'Sheas returned to Idaho in 1976 to live in the Moravia area. They enjoyed nearly 28 years together on their small farm by the old Moravia schoolhouse before Francis O'Shea passed away on Jan. 20, 2003, of congestive heart failure brought on by cancer.
Betty is remembered as a courageous lady who never wanted to bother anyone with her needs, but who was always ready to lend a helping hand to everyone else. In spite of suffering often from severe pain from arthritis and other health problems, she was a hard worker right to the last.
While Betty wasn't afraid of work, she always had time to point out the beauty of God's handiwork - from the many flowers she loved to grow to the newborn calves she happily watched over as they frolicked in the pasture by her home.
During her last days, Betty left a clear testimony of a quiet acceptance of God's Will and a contented readiness to leave this life. She talked often of her thankfulness for the many blessings He had given her during her lifetime.
Betty is survived by her son, Charles “Bud” Saunders of Discovery Bay, Calif.; daughters Claudia Peterson and her husband, Tom, of Bend, Ore., and Sandra “Sandy” Ashworth, Bonners Ferry; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; eight nieces and nephews; and very special friends Tom and Anita Foust and their family.
Funeral services were held 11 a.m. Monday, March 17, at Woodland Mennonite Church with burial at Moravia Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to Bonner Community Hospice.
Family and friends can sign Elizabeth's online guest book at www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com. Bonners Ferry Funeral Home handled arrangements.