Betty Queen Hansen

Betty Queen (MacDaniels) Hansen died December 27, 2014 of heart failure. She died quietly, minutes after finishing a cheerful conversation with two of her granddaughters. She was 97 years old. Betty was born October 15, 1917 in the warmth behind the wood stove at her Aunt Queenie’s house in Roseburg Oregon. Mother (Bessie MacDaniels) and daughter soon joined father Everett H. MacDaniels in Chelan Washington, where he was the Supervisor of the Chelan National Forest. He was transferred to Grants Pass as Supervisor of the Siskiyou National Forest and then to the Forest Service Regional Office in Portland in 1924. Annual family pilgrimages to see spring wildflowers in the Columbia River Gorge started soon thereafter and continued through 2014. Betty graduated from Portland’s Grant High in 1935 and Oregon State College in 1939. Her major was Home Economics, with special interest in dietetics. Among her extracurricular activities was the Aquabats, the women’s synchronized swimming team. The team shared some activities with the Hell Divers, a men’s swimming club, and she may have met George Hansen there. Or maybe the first meeting was in a ballroom dance class. Both stories were told. They were married in 1942 before he shipped to the Pacific with the Navy. Their first home after the war was in St Helens; they moved to Martins Street in Portland in 1949. Betty lived in that house with the redwoods until this year. Betty interned as a dietician at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and worked professionally in Washington DC and at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and then at the Barnes General Army Hospital in Vancouver Washington. Her first child, Jean Elizabeth, was born in 1944, but lived only two years. Sons Everett (1946), George (1949) and Bruce (1952) followed and Betty’s career took a different turn. Family came first, on weekend trips to the extended family’s cabins at Cove Beach or the “Holler,” near Estacada, and weeklong back packing trips throughout the Oregon and Washington mountains. She was involved with PTA at Duniway Grade School and Cleveland High, including a stint on the Board. She participated in the Scouting lives of her husband and sons as Den Mother for 9 years, hiker, camping menu developer and nutritional adviser, shuttle driver, and Scouter’s weekend volunteer. The family joined Moreland Presbyterian Church in 1950, and Betty served as Vacation Bible School teacher. Later she was on the Mission and Peace Commission, and served as Elder and as Deacon. She and George were active in Mariners (Polaris) for many years. She was a key volunteer with Loaves and Fishes, starting the Sellwood Moreland program at Moreland Presbyterian Church with Thelma Skelton and then migrating the program to its own facilities. She was a driver for Meals on Wheels for 20 years, until her eyesight started to fail. She volunteered as cook, and as Director. She was on the citywide Loaves and Fishes Board from 1979 through 1985, and served as its President from 1983 to 1985. Betty’s involvement with Portland YWCA started in high school as a horse wrangler/counselor at Camp Westwind near Lincoln City. Her “horse phase” never really ended. She kept her horse during college and rode in the hills around Corvallis (now city streets), and followed the horse racing news from harness racing to the Triple Crown throughout her life. But back to the YWCA-Betty served on the Portland Board of Trustees, including as President from 1968 to 1972, on its Finance Committee, and chaired the Capital Campaign in 1972. Her long service to the YW was recognized in 1988 with the Founder’s Award as a “Woman of Achievement.” In 1983 Betty started her 30 year association with the Leach Botanical Garden in southeast Portland. She served there as Volunteer Coordinator, Education Director, and Tour Guide. She enjoyed the annual Leach teas, often with her daughters-in-law. Betty was honored in 2012 as a 75 year member of Delta Zeta, her college sorority. She was a member of PEO, and served as Chair of its State Convention. Less formally, she and her friends formed “No Grape Jelly,” a birthday club. George, Betty’s husband of 42 years, died in 1984. She is survived by her brother Everett of Oregon City, and her sons and their wives (Everett and Barb, Corvallis), (George and Sue, Colton), (Bruce, Corvallis), seven grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. Betty is gone, but her footprints remain, on mountain trails and the sands at Westwind and SeaBird, in the gardens at Leach, and next to her friend Thelma’s footprints in the kitchen at Loaves and Fishes. She will be remembered and missed by the many family and friends who loved her. Memorials may be made to any of the organizations to which Betty devoted so much of her life. A memorial service for Betty will be held January 23 at 1:30PM at Moreland Presbyterian Church, 1814 SE Bybee in Portland. Your memories of Betty can be shared at http://www.wilhelmportlandmemorial.com/ . Service Information