Elizabeth 'Betty' Douglas

August 26, 2022

Elizabeth “Betty” Douglas, 101, died August 6, 2022, at the Extended Care Facility in Bonners Ferry. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, September 8, at the Bonners Ferry Funeral Home, 6485 Harrison Street.

She was born October 2, 1920, in Northport, Washington, to John and Velosta Chervenell, who operated a series of bakeries in the Inland Northwest. Woodrow Wilson was president the day she was born. Betty lived through the stock market crash, the Depression, World War II, the counterculture era of the 1960s and the rise of technology.

In her early years, Betty’s family moved several times before making a home in Bonners Ferry, where her father managed a bakery. As a young man, John Chervenell trained as a baker in Prague, then part of Austria-Hungary. Betty’s mother, who also had Czech ancestry, shared the traditions of their homeland with her family.

Betty graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1938. She worked for the Selective Service during WWII, and married Dayton M. Douglas, also from Boundary County, on October 9, 1942.

When her husband returned from Europe after WWII, Betty left office work to raise five children on a farm the couple owned in the Cow Creek area of Boundary County. Her husband ran an oil distributorship in Boundary County and northwestern Montana.

Upon Dayton’s death in 1973, Betty returned to work outside the home, managing the oil distributorship and later serving as Boundary County Auditor.

She will be remembered for her volunteer work supporting St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, the American Legion Auxiliary, the Restorium and the Idaho State Veterans Home in Lewiston.

Betty is survived by sister Phyllis (Robert) Collyer,  brother Robert Chervenell, son John (April) Douglas, daughters, Betsy (Jay) Townsend, Margaret Douglas (Richard) and Laura (Maxwell) Payne, granddaughter Erin Galbraith, grandson Andrew (Cherie) Galbraith and three great-grandchildren.

Betty’s husband, Dayton M. Douglas, and a daughter, Phyllis Marie Galbraith, died before her, as well as two sons-in-law: Richard Splitstone and Maxwell Payne.

Donations in Betty’s memory may be made to the Fry Healthcare Foundation.