1924 ~ 2018
~ Our Inspiration for Kindness ~
Salt Lake City, UT-Finally hearing Hamer's whispered "Let's go Betty Jo!", Betty Jo Carter Reiser slipped peacefully through the veil on July 11, 2018, then sprinted to the waiting arms of her beloved Hamer, her family and so many other loved ones who have so anxiously awaited her arrival.
An elect lady, a petite powerhouse and a choice daughter of her earthly and heavenly parents, Betty Jo is an eternally energetic and deeply devoted disciple of Jesus Christ whose tender care, compassion and personal attention she strived to emulate throughout her life. She knows Jesus Christ as her personal Savior, constant companion and dear friend.
Born during a blizzardy December evening in Perry, Utah on December 8, 1924, she arrived in a hurry and never stopped. She was the oldest daughter of Laurence G. and Emma Kunzler Carter, living an idyllic childhood in Park Valley, Utah with her 5 siblings.
She delighted in Currier & Ives Christmases on a veritable Little House on the Utah Prairie, sleeping snugly under heavy quilts sometimes laden with freshly fallen snow on the porch, riding in one-horse open sleighs, attending a one-room school house heated by a pot-belly stove with each row a different grade.
With her beloved mother and cherished siblings, she worked at her father's general store, bottling fruit and stocking root cellars in the Fall, always joyously reveling in rural life in northwestern Utah. Working arm in arm with her doting father, Betty Jo's poised and pleasant mother taught her to be industrious, diligent, frugal and most importantly, to be a gracious woman, devoted wife and tender mother.
The Carters were knit closely together in love by affectionate parents whose faith was imbedded firmly in Betty Jo's soul. By example they imprinted the power of personal prayer on her, Betty Jo constantly calling on the powers of heaven throughout her life to guide and bless not only her life, but all those whom she so joyfully served and so deeply loved.
As a teenager she left farm life in 1939 for the "big city", Brigham City, to attend high school with her older brothers Lael and Kay. Ever the caretaker, in 1943 she enrolled in the LDS Hospital Nursing School, then adjacent to the hospital. She lived in curfew-controlled dormitories as a student nurse eventually serving in the Army Nurses Corp caring for World War II veterans.
Smitten one day by a rail-thin, raven-haired, 22-year old boy wonder intern who that fateful day had started an IV for her patient, Betty Jo later dejectedly commented to her roommate that "he probably is married and has three little boys!" Of course, he wasn't married and on January 8, 1946 she married her sweetheart Hamer in the Salt Lake Temple. Their joyous marriage was blessed with what they called their "three good boys", Hamer III, Laurence and Hal.
She cherished her chosen calling as a wife and mother, gladly immersing herself in post-war suburban life in Rose Park. She kept the home fires burning while Hamer practiced his healing art, cheerfully relenting when he came home from the hospital late at night and wanted to wake up his "good boys" to play. From boating on Pine View to blissful days in Park Valley, summers in Yellowstone and excursions from Seattle to Boston, her sons, too, enjoyed an idyllic childhood.
With her endless energy and divine determination, she emulated the Savior by going about doing good, which she always did so very well. She perfectly knew Relief Society's divine origin and purpose, fearlessly sharing her unwavering faith, eternal hope and boundless charity with her sisters in Relief Society. As a 27-year-old mother of two, she was her Rose Park ward's first Relief Society president in the early 1950s. That bustling ward was booming with so many babies that it grew to more than 750 Primary children and 96 deacons in one ward with Primary held in the cultural hall. She was released when 5-months pregnant to be called only two years later, then raising rambunctious 2, 6 and 8-year old boys, to be her new Rose Park Stake's Relief Society president. Busy Betty Jo was always first at the door of a move-in, a new mother or a frail friend with food, cookies, cakes, pies, an encouraging word and her heavenly helping hands. One fellow sister wrote that "she not only made my bed for me but vacuumed underneath it too!"
She was a people person, adoring her family and friends whose company she so much enjoyed. Betty Jo was an original "foodie" before that word was coined, cooking, baking, perfecting recipes, scouring cookbooks and collecting menus from her varied, culinary experiences around the globe.
The daughters for which she so yearned became those she met and served during her 14 years as a member of the LDS Young Women's General Board from 1966 to 1978. From Santaquin to Samoa and from Georgia to Germany she counseled with young women and their leaders around the world to testify of the divinity of womanhood, sisterhood and motherhood and her sisters' eternal relationship with their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She knew, and taught, that she was more than being her "sister's keeper", she was her "sister's sister".
Betty Jo was preceded in death by her husband Hamer, Jr., her son Hamer III and is survived by her sons Laurence (Jane) and Hal (Janet). She was blessed with 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.
We thank all those who have loved and cared for Betty Jo throughout her life, so many that there is not enough room in this paper to thank.
Make Betty Jo smile by taking some cookies to a neighbor and by enjoying some with your loved ones too!
Funeral services will be Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. at the Foothill 7th Ward, 2215 E. Roosevelt Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84108. The family will greet friends from 6 to 8 pm on Tuesday, July 17th and Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 am at the 7th Ward building. Funeral services by Russon Brothers Mortuary; burial at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Online remembrances at www.russonmortuary.com