Betty Medlin

My Life Story Betty Medlin was born on October 21, 1921, in Payette, Idaho. She was the third of four daughters born to John L. and Mamie Hutchinson. John Hutchinson was a railroader, and the family lived in railroad houses in Smith’s Ferry, Weiser, Huntington, Ontario, and Harper – the train towns of the region. Betty graduated from Harper High School in 1939. One of the nine students in her graduating class was Jack Medlin. She and Jack married soon after graduation, and their first son, John, was born in November 1940. Jack’s passion was flying; he and Betty moved to Boise in 1941 and Jack began flight training. By the time the US became involved in WWII, Jack was a certified flight instructor. He quickly joined the Army Air Force, and the young family moved repeatedly as he was assigned to various bases in Texas, California and Missouri. When Jack was sent to fly B-24’s “Over the Hump” in India, the family came back to Boise where Betty’s second son, Jim, was born in December, 1942. With the war over in 1945, Jack returned to his family and resumed commercial flying. Jack and Betty, with other family members, owned the Cessna dealership and General Aircraft Company, the fixed-base operation at Boise Municipal Air Terminal. Jack was piloting a plane from Colorado to Boise in August, 1946 when the plane crashed in Wyoming: Betty was widowed with two small sons at the age of 25. Betty lived the rest of her long life with her sister Jackie Beveridge and her family, raising her sons in their extended family duplex on the Boise Bench. She supported herself and the boys first as a telephone operator for Mountain States Telephone, then for over 28 years as the night desk manager/bookkeeper at the Idanha Hotel. She was a front row spectator to the nightly jazz of Gene Harris in the lobby in the late 1970’s. Betty left the Idanha in 1980 and became involved in another family business, The Boulevard Motel. Betty was deeply committed to family. A shy person by nature, her family gave her the love and protection she needed. But she had a dry wit (often on display with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren) and an Irish temper, and shyness went out the window when this small redhead took umbrage at a real or imagined offense to her sons! She was a talented toll painter, a maker of beautiful crocheted dolls and blankets, a quilter, and a good cook. Betty died of natural causes on July 30, 2016. She is survived by her sons John Medlin (Susan) of Boise and Jim Medlin (Cindy) of Los Angeles; 7 grandchildren, Kelly Baucom (Dave), Holly Paquette (Alain), Rebeka Chavez, Doug Wisdom, Samantha Deming (Matthew Resnick), Travis Medlin (Christina), and Nicola Medlin; 8 great-grandchildren, McCall and Harrison Baucom, Gabriel and Lily Paquette, Moana and Kingston Chavez, Leland Deming, and James Medlin; and her sister Jackie Beveridge, and numerous nieces and nephews and their families. Her parents and sisters Delores LeFever and Dorothy Hale preceded her in death. There will be a celebration of Betty’s life at a future date.