Elizabeth Gaherty

Elizabeth "Betty" M. Gaherty

1923-2013 DALTON Betty Gaherty of Pleasant Street in Dalton, went to join her beloved husband William on June 7, 2013 after a long illness. She passed peacefully at home in the company of her loving daughter Sherry. She was just 11 days short of her 90th birthday.

Betty was born in Pittsfield on June 18, 1923, daughter of F. Stanley Wheeler and Martha Mauersberger Wheeler of Pittsfield. She attended schools in Pittsfield, graduating with the Class of 1941 from Pittsfield High School.

While living in Pittsfield in 1944, she met and married William Thomas Gaherty Jr. from Lee, and, in 1951 moved to Dalton. She worked for the Laurene Company from home, then General Electric Ordnance and finally, for 29 years, the Berkshire Eagle as a bookkeeper and advertising salesperson.

After her retirement from the Eagle in June of 1985, she volunteered at the Conte National Archives, and, from 1985 until 2006, volunteered thousands of valuable hours at the Lenox Library where her daughter was the Assistant Director.

During World War II she was a nurse's aid at the former House Of Mercy Hospital. Later she was a leader and assistant leader for the Campfire Girls of Dalton organization for seven years, taking the girls on many memorable trips to Cape Cod and winter overnights at Camp Marion White in Pittsfield. She always enjoyed driving a carful of girls in her convertible with the top down, while the girls screamed and laughed.

Betty enjoyed reading, walking, especially at a beach, and traveling.

She and her husband and two daughters took many trips around the U.S. They included many trips to Florida to visit her father and uncles and yearly trips to New Hampshire's Wiers Beach at Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. In later years she would spend the winters in Mesa, Arizona at the home of her younger daughter, and would travel and cruise the world the rest of the year with her older daughter. She enjoyed seeing St. Petersburg Russia, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean and Panama Canal.

William Gaherty died in May 1984 after 40 years of marriage. Betty leaves two daughters, Sherry Gaherty of Dalton and Cindy Gaherty Sanders of Mesa, Arizona, and a brother, Robert T. Wheeler of Lenox.

She is predeceased by the following brothers and sisters: Virginia E. Callan of Lenox, Stanley J. Wheeler of Lenox, George R. Wheeler of Lanesborough, Helen M. Sour Evangelisto of Lee, Earl H. Wheeler of New Lebanon, NY, and Kenneth F. Wheeler of Troy, Michigan.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Betty may be made to Hospice Care In The Berkshires or the Dalton Ambulance, both in care of the Bartlett Wellington funeral home, 524 Main Street, Dalton, 01226.