Betty Lou Mae Hilyard

Betty Lou Mae Hilyard, 89, passed away on May 28, 2021, at Highgate Senior Living in Great Falls, Montana with family by her side. Betty was born May 4, 1932, on a farm near Medicine Lake, Montana to Albert and Elmyra Erdahl. Her father, Albert, delivered Betty when she came into this world. She was the middle child of three children. Her family moved to Plentywood, and she graduated from Plentywood High School in 1950. Betty enjoyed trapshooting and won many trophies. Shortly after high school, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota where she was employed by the Northwestern Bank in the Installment Loan Department. She returned to Plentywood in 1952 and married her high school sweetheart, Charles Harold (Bud) Hilyard, Jr. in the Fall. Their honeymoon was spent at Niagara Falls in New York. Betty worked at the Security State Bank in Plentywood up until their first child, Kurt, was born in 1957. Betty and Bud raised their four children in a home Bud built on Sunnyside Avenue in Plentywood. Betty even helped Bud build their future home! Betty was a stay-at-home mom, but later when her kids were getting older, she worked part-time at Johnston Pharmacy and later at Peterson’s Ready-to-Wear in Plentywood. She was also active in 4-H, Eastern Star, Garden Club, and Craft Club. Betty was a wonderful seamstress! When she was not busy cooking and baking homemade bread for her family, she was always sewing. She also loved to read.When she was just a young girl, she would get in trouble with her parents for not going to sleep while hiding under her blankets reading a book with a flashlight. Betty and Bud traveled to Japan in 1990 to visit their youngest daughter, Cyndi, who was living in Tokyo. During that trip, they also visited Korea and Hong Kong. They took a later trip to Thailand in 1993 with their daughter where they trekked through the jungles in the north. On their way back home from Thailand, Betty and Bud vacationed in Hawaii for a few days. They also traveled to Norway to visit some of Betty’s ancestors in the 90’s. They loved to travel around the state of Montana to visit their kids, grandchildren and their youngest daughter and her family in California. Betty loved to socialize! There was always a pot of coffee brewing for anyone who stopped by to visit. She was a wonderful wife, mother, aunt, sister, grandmother, and good friend to so many who knew her. She will be greatly missed. She was preceded in death by her parents, Albert and Elmyra Erdahl; her husband of 51 years, Bud, who passed away in 2004; and her Great Grandson, Landon Augustine Wanke, who passed away at the age of 7 months in 2014. Betty is survived by her older brother, Robert Erdahl of Casper, Wyoming; and her younger sister, Evelyn (Erdahl) Rice of Plentywood. She leaves behind her four children, Kurt and his wife, BJ Hilyard, of Port Orchard, Washington, her daughter, Susan and husband Floyd Wanke, of Great Falls, Montana, her daughter, Cyndi and husband, Marcus Vitone, of Montara, California, and her son Mark and his wife, Mary Ann, of Great Falls, Montana. She also leaves behind ten grandchildren and seven great grandchildren who she loved dearly. A memorial service will be planned at a later date.