Betty A. DeVaul went to be with the Lord on March 7, 2018. She was 90.
Betty was born in Portland, Ore., on May 24, 1927, and was the daughter of Charles Robert Deagle and Bessie Ida (Davis) Deagle. Betty grew up in Portland, graduated from Jefferson High School in 1944, and lived in the family home in NE Portland until she married Wayne E. DeVaul in 1946. They had four children. They divorced in 1989.
Betty lived an amazing and adventurous life. She had been interviewed numerous times about being an eye witness to the shelling of the sandy areas adjacent to Fort Stevens (near Astoria, Ore.) by the Japanese submarine I-25 on the night of June 21, 1942.
Betty lived in Portland, several cities in Southern California in the 1960s, before settling in Corvallis, Ore. in 1969. A fast and accurate typist, Betty worked for Howard Hughes while in Southern California. While living in Corvallis, Betty worked for a department store that changed hands many times during her tenure, but Betty was a fixture in the store and was rehired by each new owner. She worked in the lingerie department and became affectionately known as the “Bra Lady”. Many women would not let anyone else help them, but Betty. Her loud voice caused many chuckles as she fitted the women, usually estimating their sizes so loudly you could hear her across the room. After her retirement from the department store, Betty worked as a volunteer at Corvallis’ Good Samaritan Hospital until a freak accident in 2004 that shattered her lower right leg.
Betty enjoyed traveling with her sister-in-law, Thelma Deagle. They went to Hawaii many times and took other trips around the country including an East Coast excursion that included Washington, D.C. and Niagara Falls.
Betty moved to Elma, Wash. in 2006 to be closer to her family, most of which had relocated to Washington. In 2011, her health and safety prompted her move to the Sequoia Assisted Living Facility in Olympia, Wash. where she lived until her death.
Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Robert Deagle, and her former husband.
Betty leaves behind her four children, Catherine (Dwight) Trahin of Woodland, Wash.; Diane (George) Smylie of Elma, Wash.; Daniel (Sally) DeVaul of San Jose, Calif.; and Beth DeVaul (Bruce Daniels) of Aberdeen, Wash. Betty has seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.
The family will host a Celebration of Life event for Betty this summer.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Catholic Community Services.
