Elizabeth “Betty” May, 80

Elizabeth “Betty” May, 80, passed away Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009, at the Hospice of Spokane, Wash.

Private services were held.

Betty was born May 23, 1929 in Indianapolis, Ind. After high school, she attended Indiana University Extension in conjunction with St. Vincent’s hospital for two years for nurse training.

Betty married and had children Dennis, Colleen and Tim. When they grew up, Betty divorced and revived her nurse training, which led to her career as a respiratory therapist in an Indianapolis hospital.

Betty has always loved people and enjoyed applying her skills making her patients comfortable. After several years at the hospital, she began contracting out her services to various nursing homes.

Eventually she retired, remarried and traveled to Michigan before returning to Indianapolis.

After Betty’s second husband died, she moved to Bonners Ferry in 1999 to be closer to her son, Tim.

Betty was never one to just sit around, so she spent more than 10 years working part time in a discount store near Sandpoint.

She maintained the same outgoing people skills she developed early in life, making many friends through work, businesses she patronized and neighbors. People were not her only friends — she always took care of stray dogs and cats in the neighborhood.

Survivors include her sons Dennis Patton of Vacaville, Calif., and Tim Patton of Naples; sister Joan Randolph of Medina, Ohio; and grandchildren Jonathan Patton of Reno, Nev., and Anna May Dalforno of South Tahoe, Calif.