Searching the Wyoming night skies for answers, she looked for solutions and resolutions to her life’s questions. For too long now, she had ridden hard on this trail ride termed her life. She had been abandoned, left homeless and penniless with no direction on her life’s compass. How did this happen to her? When would this rough ride be over?
Life began in 1925 when she lived with her parents near the oil fields in Casper, Wyoming. Her first years were filled all the wonderments of childhood. Her father taught her to love the outdoors. To her delight, he kept baby foxes for pets. He gave her the gift of loving horses and riding. He taught his little daughter to hunt and fish. He showed her about guns and shooting. Suddenly, her life changed and became upended eight years later with her parents’ bitter divorce. With the separation, she seemed to have been abandoned by her father. She rarely saw him. For the rest of her life, she would search for someone she loved as much as her father.
During her senior year in high school, she became infatuated with a good looking, fast talking, smooth operator named Kem. He had graduated the year before. Swept off her feet, she dropped out to school to marry him. At that point, her life took a drastic downward spiral.
From 1942 to 1972, she would marry eight times. Two she would marry twice. Each marriage would last an average of 18 months. Most of the divorces were the husband filing against her for indignities. She was the mother of one son, whom she gave to her remarried mother. The boy was adopted and had a name change. It was like sand sifting through her fingers with no real home or love to claim as only hers.
When she passed away in 1989, only two marriages were listed in her obituary. She left no money for her burial expenses. Would she be laid to rest in an unmarked grave?
A visit to the Willow Grove Cemetery, Buffalo, Wyoming, tells her final story. The tombstone inscription bears an obvious mystery. Could a genealogy detective solve it?
Note: For many years, I did not know the identity of Jack Coffee. Today as I searched Ancestry, I noted several new records for Betty Lou. Two of the records revealed that she had married John/Jack Coffee in 1959 and in 1964. He had stepped forward to place a tombstone in her final resting spot. Peace be with you, Betty Lou.
