Betty Jo Elizabeth Babbitt D’Mura
Betty Jo Elizabeth Babbitt D’Mura passed away peacefully on May 15, 2020. She was 100 years old. She was the second child of Joseph R. Babbitt Sr. and Viola Passey Babbitt, born on March 31, 1920, in Mesa, Arizona. The family story is that Viola, against her husband’s wishes, chose “Betty Jo” for the birth certificate. Joe, astonished, had her baptized “Elizabeth Viola”. She signed one or the other depending on the document throughout her life. Betty Jo’s “given” name has been in question ever since.
Betty Jo grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, at a time when boardwalks, not sidewalks, lined the downtown streets and air conditioning, used when visiting grandparents in Mesa, was provided by hanging wet sheets on clotheslines and sleeping between them. At an early age, she discovered her first love: reading. As a child, she would take a book and an apple, climb a tree, and spend the day reading. As an adult, she often did much the same, but in a comfortable chair. Her insatiable appetite for books continued until her eyesight failed her in her nineties.
She attended elementary school at St Anthony’s Catholic School, Flagstaff; high school at Immaculate Heart High School, Hollywood, CA; college at Arizona State Teachers College, Flagstaff; and completed her undergraduate degree in Education at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Later, she earned her Master’s Degree in Education from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.
During her college years, she met Michael D’Mura, of Gary, Indiana. Their introduction came at a social where his paper plate of spaghetti failed and found its way on to Betty Jo’s dress. Once introduced they were inseparable. Not long after graduation, they married in October 1941, at Nativity BVM Church in Flagstaff. The couple moved to the Chicago area where Mike was employed as an industrial engineer at Carnegie Illinois Steel Company. At first, Betty Jo and Mike lived with his parents in Gary. The Midwest was not Flagstaff and the bitter winters and steamy summers were hard on Betty Jo. The break-out of World War II kept them there as steelworkers were designated as providing “essential services”, making steel for the war effort. Eventually, a tiny Chicago apartment opened and they moved in. Finally, the couple had their own space. In the fall of 1943, Betty Jo returned to Flagstaff for the birth of their first child, Michael Robert (Bobby). She returned to Chicago for the duration of the war, more homesick for Arizona than before.
World War II did come to an end, and an opportunity opened in Betty Jo’s family’s business. The three moved back to Flagstaff; Betty Jo managed the house and Mike managed a sawmill for Babbitt Brothers Trading Company. Two more children followed Elizabeth Carol (1946) and John Martin (1950).
Between the bustles of caring for three kids, having a large, extended family in Flagstaff, and raising pet sheep, Betty Jo developed outlets for her creativity and interests. She wrote poetry (published in the local newspaper), took up oil painting (and sold several landscapes), cast ceramics (kiln on the back porch) and became an avid bird watcher. She knew birds by sight and by song. She counted birds for Cornell University’s Ornithology Department. Unfortunate wild birds that perished by flying through unseen windows were collected and frozen for the Museum of Northern Arizona (care was required selecting a snack from the family freezer). She set out seeds, suet and peanut butter because each attracted different birds.
Unexpectedly, John’s third-grade teacher left St. Anthony’s School mid-semester and an immediate replacement was needed. Betty Jo put her Education degree to work, stepped in and began her teaching career. Teaching appealed to her and she was good at it. This new vocation led to a position teaching special reading at W. F. Killip Elementary school. Around this same time, Betty Jo and Mike were surprised by their fourth child, Paul Richard (1962). The older kids grew up, moved out, and married, but “PR” extended their parenting years through their fifties and into their sixties.
This rich family period of life drastically changed when Mike, her husband of 43 years, passed away in October 1984. Widowed and all her kids grown, Betty Jo explored another love of hers, traveling. A trip years earlier rafting through Glenn Canyon (as Lake Powell filled with water) lead to several rafting trips through the Grand Canyon. Mexico was a frequent destination. She enjoyed a cabin in Cholla Bay for 40 years, traveled by rail twice through the country, and experienced a total eclipse of the sun in southern Baja in 1991. Combining travel with “birding” she sailed the Caribbean aboard the Sea Cloud (a 1920’s luxury yacht turned cruise ship); stayed in a US Army/ Panamanian reconnaissance tower turned eco-hotel (with a three-toed sloth hanging directly outside the window – all seven days); viewed the Blue-Footed Booby on the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; and saw birds all over the British Isles, Washington state, New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. She also loved seashells, amassing a huge collection and enjoyed a “collecting trip” to the Philippines for rare specimens. Betty Jo lived a full life.
Betty Jo was the last of the Joseph Babbitt Sr. children to pass away. She was preceded in death by her husband, Michael D’Mura. She is survived by her children Michael Robert (Pam) of Peoria, AZ; Elizabeth Carol (Dan) of Sierra Vista, AZ; John Martin of Peoria, AZ; and Paul Richard (Janell) of Glendale, AZ; ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
Due to family health concerns and circumstances resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, no funeral is planned at this time. The family suggests that if you are moved to do so, please donate to the Nativity BVM Restoration Project, www.savenativitybvm. Memories and condolences can be shared with the family directly or online at www.hansenmortuary.com/obituaries/.