Betty Ruth Moseley

Betty Ruth Cox was born on July 26, 1928 in Hatch, NM to Mary Smith Cox and Newt H. Cox. She was the eldest of three siblings. Betty’s parents had their heart in farming and Betty lived on two different farms as she was growing up, the first a small, irrigated farm in Arrey, NM, growing cotton, alfalfa, corn and vegetables to sustain the family through the Great Depression. They gradually improved their condition, moving from a one-room log-and-mud house to better adobe houses, getting some thoroughbred Guernsey cows and going into dairy farming. Betty, Jim and Linnie Belle were taught many values and skills, were loved, and were given every opportunity their parents could afford during those lean years. They moved to Bosque Farms, NM (near Albuquerque) in 1942 for the children to be closer to attend university when the time came, and they farmed irrigated alfalfa and ran a dairy. Betty’s brother, Jim, still lives on the original farm. After a few happy years there, Betty’s father died tragically in a tractor accident in 1945. Betty, her mother, and her siblings all had to work hard to keep the farm going while Betty was in high school and then college. Even while attending the University of New Mexico, Betty and her mother milked a dozen cows each morning before leaving together for early morning classes. During the time Betty was studying for her degree in Mathematics (1950) and her Master of Art in Mathematics Education (1952), her mother was also gaining her college degree. Betty used her education degree to teach math in schools in Chile, Albuquerque, NM, New Orleans, LA, and Fort Collins, CO. Betty met William W. Moseley (Bill) while they were both attending the University of New Mexico, and they married on August 6, 1950, in Bosque Farms. They were blessed to be married for more than 60 years. Before moving to Fort Collins, Betty and Bill lived in Pineville, LA, and New Orleans, LA, where Bill was a professor of Spanish. Over the years, Bill’s work led them to travels around the world, including Spain, Portugal, and Chile. While living in New Orleans, Betty worked with Head Start; aided in registering voters during integration days in the South; and managed a victorious school board bid by one devoted to improving education for all children and youth. Their daughter, Therese, was born in 1960 while they lived in New Orleans. In 1967 they moved to Fort Collins where Bill taught Spanish and Portuguese in the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department at Colorado State University. Their son, William Whatley, Jr., was born in 1969. In 1975, Betty’s mother moved to Fort Collins to live with Betty and her family. Betty and her mother had a mutual love of sewing, and together they opened The Stitching Post. They were creative seamstresses and having this shop for several years fulfilled a dream for them both. Betty served the Fort Collins community in many ways and helped start many organizations during her 56 years of living here. She was a founding member of many organizations that served the elderly in Northern Colorado, including the Larimer County Foundation on Aging, Task Force on the Elderly, the Larimer Senior Network, and the Continuum of Care Coalition. She served a term on the Larimer County Board of Health. As Betty lovingly cared for her own mother until her death at 101 years old, she saw the need for day care for the elderly in Fort Collins. It became her dream to establish a place where older persons who still wanted to live with their younger family members who worked could come for care during the daytime. This led to the founding of Elderhaus Adult Day Programs in 1980, which is still going strong today. Betty was a member of American Baptist Church of Fort Collins, serving the church for 10 years as Christian Education & Youth Ministries Director, as well as many other board positions. She served the American Baptist Churches of the Rocky Mountains on the board of Black Forest Camp & Conference Center and the Baptist Home Association, as well as in American Baptist Women’s Ministries on the local, regional, and national levels. Through her church and her desire for faith communities to work together, she was a founding member of the Fort Collins Interfaith Council and United Campus Ministry, and was active in Church Women United. Women, girls, and equal education were another focus of her community efforts. Betty was involved in the American Association of University Women while living in New Orleans, and again when she moved to Fort Collins. Through AAUW she led a number of projects with the Fort Collins public schools such as supporting girls in math and science, resources showing women’s roles in history, and teaching younger children that “Hands and Words Are Not for Hurting” (a domestic violence prevention initiative). She was a founding member of the Women’s Resource Center. She also served the needs of children, recognizing the need for before and after school care for young children and helping to found B.A.S.E. Camp. Not only was Betty of service to her community, but she was also an accomplished homemaker and devoted mother. She worked many hours on the various service projects, and still found time to be present for her children. She was the best mother that her children could have ever asked for. She was a believer of faith in action. She saw needs in her community and worked with others to advocate and take action to meet those needs. Her service was to persons of all ages and conditions. Once, after a long and fruitless store-by-store search for a part to repair her broken dishwasher, Betty ended up scouring the city dump. She found the needed part, removed it from the discarded machine, returned home, and fixed her dishwasher. In sum, this incident was Betty’s life. She saw a need, knew what needing doing, explored all ways for filling the need, and then devoted herself to meeting the need. Betty had an abundant life because she gave to others, all so that they, too, could have life and have it more abundantly. Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Bill, in 2011. Betty is survived by her two siblings, Jim (Nell) Cox of Bosque Farms, NM, and Linnie Belle Hyde of League City, TX; her daughter, Therese (Thomas) Myers of Fort Collins, her son Bill, Jr. (Jami) Moseley of Fort Collins, and her four grandchildren, A.J. Myers of Denver, Nathan Myers (Kara) of Greeley, William Moseley of Fort Collins, and Katie Moseley of Fort Collins. Betty’s family would like to thank Pathways hospice for their compassionate, loving care of Betty and our entire family. A service and reception will be held on January 5, 2024 at 11:00 am at Bohlender’s Funeral Chapel, 121 W. Olive Street in Fort Collins, with visitation on January 4 from 4:00-6:00 pm. The service will be live streamed here on Betty's obituary page. The family requests that memorial gifts be made to Elderhaus Adult Day Programs (6813 S. College Ave., Fort Collins, CO 80525 or online at https://elderhaus.org/home/get-involved/giving/). Betty’s full obituary and condolences to the family can be made at www.bohlenderfuneralchapel.com.

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Betty Ruth Moseley

July 26, 1928 - December 23, 2023