Betty Herring
Betty Herring spent most of her childhood squeezed into a two-room sod house that she shared with her Oklahoma farmer parents and 12 siblings. An outhouse sat at the end of a dirt path.
These days, the 75-year-old grandmother lives in a three-bedroom, two-bath home in a gated community in North Spokane.
“This girl’s come a long way,” says Herring, recalling a life she describes as filled with hard work and good fortune.
A retired kindergarten teacher, Betty arrived in Spokane shortly after her daughter moved to the area with her husband and three children. After living more than 50 years in Northern California, Betty, a widow, considers herself an Inland Northwest newcomer.
“I couldn’t stand being away from my grandchildren,” says Betty, adding that following her daughter was an easy decision. “I make friends easily.”
Why Spokane?
“I just love the cultural things,” Betty says. She attended several events during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She likes the variety of restaurants downtown. She loves the theater, concerts and senior center dances.
“I have several boyfriends,” she says with a girlish giggle. “I still enjoy male companionship.”
Real estate
When she first arrived in Spokane, Betty stayed with her daughter while she waited for her home to be built. The 39-home development she now calls home has a lot of “single ladies like me,” she says, adding that neighbors look out for each other. A resident who fails to retrieve the newspaper by noon can expect a visit.
Betty gets a lot of visitors, she says, so she needs lots of room. Her son and his family still live in California, and she has eight surviving brothers and sisters who often come to visit.
“Four sisters came last year,” she says.
Settling in
Betty stays so busy with volunteer work that her daughter forces her to carry a cellular phone, she says. She recently devoted several days to sewing costumes for an Easter play. Earlier this year, she joined her neighbors in a fight to stop annexation of their neighborhood to Spokane.
She also is writing a book, and that book has a working title. ” ‘From Humble Beginnings,’” she says.
“I’ve done a lot of things.”