Bettye Linda While

It is with great sadness that we, the children of Bettye Linda (Munson) While, announce the news that our beloved mother passed away peacefully at The Hospice House of Laramie, Wyoming on the evening of July 25, 2025, at the age of 91. She was born on November 11, 1933, in Laramie Wyoming to parents Stella (Laverne) Munson and Arthur Herbert Munson. Bettye was the wife of the late Donald William While Sr., with whom she shared just shy of 50 years of marriage. She is survived by her three children, Don (Jackie) While Jr., Diane (Scott) Spearnak, and Todd (Charlotte) While, five grandchildren to include Shantell (Matt) Leach, Taylor and Morgan While, Eboni (Gary) Moore, and Connie Spearnak, and eleven great grandchildren to include Jayden and Olivia Leach, Keelynne and Donny Veniegas, Tiana Warner, Makiya, Kayori, Davyn, Meena, Gary, and Scott Moore. Bettye was preceded in death by her parents, husband Donald W. While Sr., siblings James A. and Paul H. Munson, Phyllis (Grant) Johnson, and granddaughter Elektra While.

Bettye was a graduate of Laramie High School class of 1951. She left Laramie shortly after graduating to pursue a dream of dancing on Broadway with the Radio City Rockettes. She attended their academy and did very well, but when a new minimum height restriction came into being, she found herself on a bus headed back to Wyoming. She began working at The First National Bank in Laramie and she loved being a teller and working in several other capacities at the bank. Being great with numbers, names, grammar, and all things requiring precision and detail-oriented thinking, this was a perfect job for her, and she loved it.

Along came a husband, then children, and the need to move into another line of work. She went back to school, now the University of Wyoming, played (percussion) in the marching band, pursued several other interests, but ultimately began her journey to teaching elementary school which was the start of something profound. She developed a teaching style so welcome by sixth grade students that to this day many recall her as "the best teacher they have ever had" and "she made the largest positive impact on their lives of any educator", and many such very strong compliments that are still being shared with us to this day. She was well-known for her sixth-grade end-of-year programs where the students sang, square danced, acted, played instruments, and demonstrated many of the skills and lessons they learned throughout the school year. Bettye's Sixth Grade Programs in Laramie are fondly remembered the "standard by which others are measured" in the hearts of all those involved. Bettye was a Wife, Mom, Sister, Grandma, Great Grandma, Aunt, Cousin and many other things. However, she was without question, an incomparable educator.

A Celebration of Life for Bettye will be held at the First Christian Church in Laramie, Wyoming, 2130 E. Garfield Street, on Monday, August 11 th, at 10:00am with a reception to follow at the same location. Donations may be made to The Hospice House of Laramie, 1754 Centennial Drive, Laramie, WY 82070 in her honor.