Helen Elizabeth Keebler

Formally Helen Elizabeth Keebler was born in 1924 to S. Leslie and Chloe Cammock. Age 91, and she died of cancer in Billings on June 25, 2016. She grew up hoeing beets in the Depression on Poverty Flats (Joliet). Her grandfather was a hard working Scotch coal miner that came over on the boat. He worked the coal mines but as Bear Creek wound down, he thought he'd settle in and try farming at Joliet and that's where Betty began. Her father, S. Leslie, had taken over the Joliet farm in tough times and he also maintained a dance band that played throughout Carbon County in the Depression. So Betty, as a grade-schooler, often had to sub in the band, playing sax or piano for musicians who failed to show up or got somehow waylaid. Music stayed with her for her entire life and she was always in the choir. So she was a working girl in a man's world ... right from the start. That was one side of her Scotch pedigree. The other side of the family were McKinleys (also Scotch) from Lodge Grass.

Betty had two younger sisters, Dorothy (Olsen) and Pat (Betts), both now deceased. She became a teacher during WWII and was the very first in her family history to get a college degree, a two-year teaching certificate from EMC in 1944. Her first job was at a one-room school house near the Edgar Cemetery, and then she got a big-time teaching job the next year at Belfry High, primarily because of her music background, teaching band and English. Post war she married her lifelong husband Allen Keebler, and they had two children, Connie and Les. Betty also leaves seven grandchildren: Ryan, Brent, and Zach Zimmerman, a second Allen Keebler, Jennifer (Chapman), Kristi (Monson), and Jill (Nauman). Great grandchildren number in the double digits. Betty returned to teaching in 1953 and taught junior high at Shiloh school in Billings and then English at Lockwood JHS ... forever. Somewhere she had learned how to mend and bind old books with broken backs, volunteering for the back room at the Billings library. So she was a natural teacher, librarian, book lover and a true believer in education.

Betty and Al were a highly productive, local, hardworking couple that started out with absolutely nothing ... and did well during an exciting time period. She often talked about starting her marriage without a nickel to their name and cooking on a hotplate in a Hobson motel with silverware pilfered from a local restaurant. Betty played sax in the Billings Community band for many years, well into her late 70s. She also played the pipes. She did Eastern Star, Shriners and square dancers ... and lots of people knew her. In the end she said, "I've had a good run and loved them all, well most of them! I've had a good turn."

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m., June 30, at Smith West Chapel, 304 34th St. W. with interment at Sunset Memorial Gardens. Condolences may be shared with the family at smithfuneralchapels.com.