Lois Elizabeth Alvarez

Lois Elizabeth "Betty" Kern was born the eldest child of Harold and Ida Kern of Fort Collins, Colorado. She went to Montana during her early years with her parents who raised wheat for the US Army on their homestead on the Canadian Border. She had one sister, one brother and one niece. She returned to Colorado then to Southern California (Anaheim, then back to Colorado where she attended Fort Collins High School. She married her high school sweetheart, Charles Louis Watson, in 1932 and lived in a log house beside her parents' home on the Overland Trail. Later, she and Charley had a gas station on Shields and Vine Drive in Fort Collins. They later lived in Masonville, CO, then moved with her own family in 1953 to Arcata, California, where she spent the rest of her years. Her husband, Charley Watson, was in WWII. They had 4 daughters. After Charley's death, she married his friend, Wally Lee (Wallace Leon Alvarez) and adopted Wally's son. Betty loved the mountains, the beaches, the redwoods, her gardens. the birds and animals all around her. She loved to travel and was a 'free spirit' at heart. She left her loving family on March 10, 1987, after living at the home of her daughter in McKinleyville, CA. She died of emphysema at the Mad River Community Hospital, Arcata, Humbolt County, California. Betty had 5 children, 18 grandchildren, 41 great grandchildren, and (to date) 22 great, great grandchildren.