Betty Jean Durfee, 87 of Sundance, Wyoming, passed away Friday June 19, 2015 at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

Visitation will be Wednesday, June 24, 2015 from 5pm to 7pm at Fidler-Roberts & Isburg Funeral Chapel in Sundance, Wyoming. Services will be Thursday June 25, 2015 at 10am at the Sundance United Methodist Church. Burial will follow at Green Mountain Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to benefit the Sundance Country Club.

Betty Jean was born April 12, 1928 in Niagara, WI to Art and Helen Gareta (Ethington) Duca. When Betty was one, the family moved to Rapid City, SD. They also lived in Spearfish, Gillette, Sundance and Upton. Betty graduated in 1946 from Sundance High School. She married William "Bill" Hopson on May 29, 1946. They lived in Sundance for a time where Betty worked for the Mona Short Line Telephone Company. To this union five boys were born. Besides Sundance the family lived in Upton, Spearfish, Rapid City, Huron, and Brookings, SD and a couple of towns in California. Betty was secretary of the PTA and a den mother. She also worked in a department store and a movie theater. Bill died in 1959 and Betty and the boys moved to Upton in 1961. She then married Richard "Dick" Durfee in August of 1961 in Rapid City. They had four girls. They lived in Upton for a couple of years then moved to Sundance. Dick died in 1983. Betty started spending winters in Sun City, AZ in 1986 with Dick's mother coming home monthly for board meetings for the Sundance State Bank. She met Ferris Sheffer in AZ and they were engaged until his death in 1995. Ferris and Betty did some traveling to Alaska and Australia and New Zealand. After her mother-in-law passed away, Betty sold the AZ home and moved back to Sundance permanently. Betty stayed in the family home until May of this year when she moved to the Belle Estate Senior Living Center until her passing. At the center she loved visiting with the other residents and playing bingo in her bingo dress.

Betty was active in Cattlewomen, Job's Daughters, 4-H, Boys and Girls Scouts. She loved golfing, bowling and playing cards as well as dancing. When the kids were young she also taught Sunday School. She was a rancher and the chief cook and bottle washer and best care taker and cookie maker around.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husbands, Bill and Dick; fiancé Ferris; brothers, Jack, Wayne and Arnold; and her son, Timmy.

She leaves behind a sister, Kathy (Terry) Currey; sister-in-law, Patricia Duca; sons, Rocky (LeeAnn) Hopson, Danny (Jan) Hopson, David (Ted) Hopson, Bill (Will) Hopson; daughters, Trudy (Mike) Durfee, Dolly (Jett) Schloredt, Tammy (Troy) Jensen, Liz (Michael) Taylor; grandchildren, Rocky Hopson Jr., Ryan Hopson, Shaun (Tracey)Hopson, Hayden Johnston, Sheridan Schubarth, Shad (Kelsey) Schloredt, Lindsey (Forest) Sainsbury, Jerrett Schloredt, Kaitlyn Jensen, Hunter Jensen, Trey Taylor, Kye Taylor; step-grandchildren, Chris (Andrea) Sipe, Paul Sipe, Jory Wendling, Tomi Folkestad, Shana Garcia and JR Rea; great-grandchildren, Ella and Emmett Schloredt and numerous step-great-grandchildren.