| Betty
Campbell retires after 45 years as a teller
Idaho County Free Press “That’s not me,” she laughed. “I have plenty to keep me busy.” Campbell will retire March 1 after 45 years as a teller. She retires from Wells Fargo in Grangeville, having started with what was First Security in Cottonwood before it was sold to Wells Fargo. The Cottonwood branch closed two years ago. “That was difficult,” Campbell shook her head. “I had been going there, three minutes from my house, for 43 years,” she said. “It was difficult to clean out and then to see it sold and remodeled.” Campbell explained the closing of the Cottonwood branch was much like a death. “It really was that big of change,” she said. Campbell was born and raised on her parents’ farm – Verl and Alice Chicane -- just outside of Cottonwood. She lives on the same property she grew up on, working the same land and utilizing the same outbuildings for her animals. She graduated from Prairie High School, married and moved to Montana where she had two children, a son and a daughter, Rick and Bobbi. When she divorced, she moved back home to Cottonwood. “The kids and I participated in O-Mok-Sees --- it was definitely a family activity,” she said. When she met Gary Campbell, their lives fell in place as he became a father to her children and enjoyed the same things the family did with ranching and horses. He ended up being a right-hand man to her father for 35 years, running cattle and completing additional farm and ranch work. Campbell said she grew up a tomboy, always playing outside and with the animals. “I knew I could do whatever the boys could do, and when my cousin told me on the school bus one day that he was doing something called 4-H – well, I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I wanted to try it,” she laughed. Campbell worked starting in 1974 as the main co-leader with Marie Lerandeau with the Cottonwood Saddliers and Livestock 4-H Club. Campbell still helps with the club. Her husband, Gary, died in 2014, and although she said she misses him greatly, she has not let his absence keep her from living. Her two children live close-by and she has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, who all help her as well as keep her busy attending events, activities and programs. She also has 100 laying hens and has no problem selling the nearly 500 eggs each week. Along with this she has a large garden and orchard and 50 head of cattle. “I love cows,” she smiled. “I grew up with them and have always enjoyed them. Right now, they’re [in the field] right outside my window where I can watch them.” Calving season will soon take up much of Campbell’s time, who will have help from her son-in-law. Campbell served as the Idaho County Fair grand marshal in 2016 and is still involved with the fair each summer. In the winter she also enjoys bowling, something she has done for 30 years. Her team, which for the past two years has included her oldest granddaughter, will go to state competition in Caldwell and nationals in Topeka, Kan., this year. 
Betty Campbell is pictured in front of her home on Graves Creek Road just outside of Cottonwood. Photo by Lorie Palmer. |
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