Betty Hopkins
Betty Hopkins died on Aug. 18, 2020, in Valencia, California, on her 90th birthday.
She was born Betty Lue Nielson on Aug. 18, 1930, in Centerfield, Utah, the youngest of the seven children of Valeria Larsen and William Nielson, descendants of Mormon immigrant pioneers from Scandinavia. She graduated from Gunnison High School in 1948, where her bubbly blonde good looks earned her the nickname “the Beauty Queen of Gunnison High.”
After marriage to her high school sweetheart, Robert Anderson, she moved to California as a young bride. She and Robert raised four children: Blake, Robyn, Jeffrey, and Barry in Torrance, California. In 1980 she married William Hopkins of Rolling Hills Estates, California. Betty and Bill moved to Las Vegas a few years later where they lived in Sun City/Summerlin. More recently Betty resided at Acacia Springs Senior Living in Las Vegas.
Betty was fond of saying that “family is everything,” and to prove it she tirelessly knit and crocheted house slippers and baby blankets and afghans for family and friends, as well as for charity. She was a gifted craftsman, and took great pleasure in trying her hand at many “crafty” ventures, from feather flower arrangements to ceramics.
In her youth she sang with the “Mother Singers” of Southern California and loved to socialize and go bowling with her friends. She also loved animals, and her sons recall growing up in a menagerie of dogs, tortoises, rabbits, hamsters, snakes, mice, guinea pigs, and the occasional trained rat. She will be remembered for her cheerful personality, her resilience in the face of adversity, and her love of a good joke.
She is survived by her sons: Jeffrey Anderson and Anderson O’Mealy (formerly Barry Anderson); grandchildren: Austin, Gregg, Ashlee; great-grandchildren: Ava, Charles, Cameron, MacKenzie, and Chase.
She was preceded in death by her son Blake; daughter Robyn; husbands: Robert Anderson and Bill Hopkins; parents; and her six siblings: Helena, Melba, Lillis, Ned, Neil and Jerry.
Graveside services and interment will be held Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020 at 10 a.m. in the Gunnison City Cemetery. Funeral Directors: Magleby Mortuary, Richfield, Salina and Manti. Online guestbook at www.maglebymortuary.com.
