Betty Dillon Obituary

Longtime area resident Betty Jean Ertel Dillon died Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013, at the Valley Inn Nursing Home in Mancos. She was 94.

Mrs. Dillon was born to J. Walter and Ida Ertel on Sept. 11, 1919, in Ackman, a town that no longer exists, north of Cortez. She was the second of five children born to the couple.

In 1920, Mr. Ertel became a licensed mortician and moved the family to Mancos. The young family spent five years in Mancos, where they purchased a funeral home, before both family and business moved to Cortez. When Mrs. Dillon was 9, her mother died.

During her junior year of high school in Cortez, she met her future husband, Richard "Dick" Dillon. They married in 1937 in Aztec.

Mr. Dillon worked as a logger and a scaler, moving the family at various times to McPhee, Vail and Olympia, Wash., Whiteriver, Ariz., and Mancos.

During summer 1941, Mrs. Dillon cooked in a logging camp up at the Glade above Dolores with three daughters aged 1, 2 and 3, and in the 1960s, she made a home in an old Forest Service cabin with no electricity or running water.

In 1971, the Dillons finally settled in Mancos, where Mrs. Dillon cared for her husband until his death in 1973.

In Mancos, she joined the local chapter of the Philanthropic Educational Organization and was active in the Methodist Church. She was also a 4-H leader, president of the PTA and belonged to Study Club.

"Betty was also a wonderful seamstress, making all of her girls' clothes and even some for their friends," according to her family. "She also made doll clothes and costumes. Her cooking was admired as well, and her recipes have been passed down through several generations."

Mrs. Dillon was preceded in death by her husband of 36 years, Richard Dillon; and daughters Dixie Robbins and Sharon Bott.

She is survived by her children Roma Lynn Ewing, Diane Muller, Pat Morgan and Preston Scott Dillon, all of Mancos, and Michael Sue Kern of Tucson, Ariz.; brothers Walter Ertel and Richard Lindsay, both of Cortez, and Donnie Ertel of California; 22 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; and numerous extended family members.

A funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, at the Ertel Memorial Chapel, 42 N. Market St., in Cortez. Burial will take place next to her husband after the service at Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Mancos First United Methodist Church; or Habitat for Humanity.

Online condolences may be sent at www.ertelfuneralhome.com.