Betty Jo Hinson Dortch

Betty Jo Hinson Dortch who resided at Discovery Care Center in Hamilton, Montana died there on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 after a brief illness.

Betty was born in Erin, Tennessee on January 11, 1922, the second child and oldest daughter of John Stewart Hinson and Ollie Richardson Hinson.

In January of 1922, the Hinson's were living in Detroit, Michigan, but Ollie returned to her parents' home outside Erin, Tennessee for the birth of her second child. After a brief time in Michigan, Betty's family returned to the village of Danville in Houston County, Tennessee where they lived until the family home and property were taken in preparation for the TVA's damming of the Tennessee River to create Kentucky Lake. The Hinson's then relocated to the village of McKinnon, a few miles east of Danville.

Betty married Lee Batson Dortch in 1941. After Lee's enlistment in the US Army, Betty followed him to Columbia, SC and then to New Orleans, LA where they lived while he was in training. As no military housing was provided for dependents at that time, they boarded with local families. With Lee on his way to duty in Trinidad and then in France, she returned to McKinnon and lived there with her family until the end of World War II in 1945. Upon Lee's return from the war, they moved to Stewart County, Tennessee. Betty, Lee, and their daughters lived in the community of Standing Rock in Stewart County from 1946 to 1988 when they moved to Montana. She has lived in Ravalli County, Montana in the towns of Victor and Hamilton since 1989.

Betty was an alumna of Erin High School, graduating as Salutatorian in 1939. During the 50's and 60's, she owned and operated Betty's Beauty Shop. Betty served as a substitute teacher at Mulberry Hill Elementary School and was a member of the Stewart County School Board for many years. Always mindful of the public good, when Betty lived on Hudson Lane in Victor, Montana, she launched a successful campaign for USPS direct-to-home mail delivery. Betty was reared in the Christian faith and in Tennessee attended the Standing Rock United Methodist Church.

As a devoted homemaker, Betty was known for being a talented seamstress who made clothes for herself and her daughters. She loved quilting and spent many winter afternoons with her needle and thread. She was also an excellent and creative cook, utilizing a variety of vegetables which she and Lee raised in their garden. Betty always made time to explore the nearby creeks, hillsides, and fields with her daughters. There was an annual springtime adventure in the creek bottoms to identify spring flowers. Summer was time for taking advantage of the spring-fed Standing Rock Creek to stay cool. It was here that she began her collection of rocks. She loved rocks, and over the years, she accumulated quite a collection of fossils. She loved Montana's river stones and always came home from fishing and camping trips with her pockets full and lots of novel ideas about what the stones looked like. Sifting through a bucket of dirt for Montana sapphires was her idea of heaven.


Betty is survived by her three daughters: Jeane Bruton (John) of Victor, Montana; Carolyn Dortch of Hamilton, Montana; and Marilyn DeSalvo (Jonathan Wilkins) of Youngstown, Ohio; a sister Helen Edmondson of Clarksville, Tennessee; sisters-in-law Norma Dortch of Dover, Tennessee; Frances Hinson of Amarillo, Texas; and Oma Hinson of Erin, Tennessee; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband Lee Batson Dortch whom she married in 1941; her parents John and Ollie Hinson; and her brothers John Stewart Hinson and his wife Frances, Charles Dudley Hinson, Henry Lorn Hinson, and George Emmett Hinson and his wife Ann, and numerous other brothers-in law and sisters-in-law.

Cremation arrangements will be entrusted to Daly-Leach Memorial Chapel, Hamilton, Montana; 1010 West Main Street, Hamilton 59840 (406.363-2010). There will be no calling hours. Expressions of sympathy will be accepted at www.dalyleachchapel.com. Any memorial services, when scheduled, will be announced in this space.

Books were an essential part of Betty's life. To honor her lifelong love of reading, her dedication to education, and her abiding curiosity and enjoyment of new knowledge, her family requests that Memorial Contributions be sent to the Bitterroot Public Library Memorial Fund, 306 State Street, Hamilton, Montana 59840; (406)363-1670 or the Stewart County Public Library, 102 Natcor Drive, Dover, Tennessee 37058; (931)232-3127.