Janet E. (Betty) Morrison

Posted

(Aug. 24, 2005)

Graveside services for Janet E. (Betty) Morrison are scheduled at Crown Hill Cemetery in Powell Thursday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m.

She died Wednesday, Aug. 24 at Huntington Beach, Calif., following two months of declining health.

Born Feb. 27, 1919, Janet, who was known as Betty, was the second child of Janet Pryde and Charles Heasler.

She attended school in Byron and graduated from Byron High School in 1937. She married L.T. (Blackie) McCrary in 1938, and they settled in Powell. At the time, she directed the Job’s Daughters and was active in the American Legion and the LDS Church.

Their only son, Larry, was born in 1940. She helped Blackie start a butane, propane and Culligan water softener business in Powell.

She was selected the first “Mrs. Powell” in the 1940s.

Her husband died in 1951, and she remained in Powell where she worked for Western Union and rented extra bedrooms in her home to teachers and college students.

Betty moved to California with her son Larry in 1954, where she married Robert Morrison. She made her home there until Larry graduated from high school. She then moved to New York City with her husband, and they built a home in New Jersey. While living in New Jersey, she was active in Eastern Star and Newcomer’s Club. She was sent to Hawaii to install the first White Shrine for the Eastern Star.

Following a divorce, Betty returned to Huntington Beach where she enrolled in college and obtained her teaching degree. She possessed talents for working with developmentally-challenged students and worked wonders with them. She was among teachers who took students to Washington, D.C., and while there, they performed for the president. A grant was issued to provide funds to do more with these children. This was prior to Special Olympics and other programs now in place.

Funeral services were held in Huntington Beach on Sept. 3 at the LDS Chapel. Survivors include her son, Larry McCrary; three grandchildren, Kimberly Masters and Dan and Paul McCrary; great-grandchildren, Shawna Page and James Masters; and one sister, Nora Gibson.

She was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, Jack and Charles Heasler.

Thompson Funeral Home is making local arrangements.

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