Betty Gwendolyn (Darland) Morris Friesen, 96, passed away due to natural causes on Monday, March 25, 2019, at her residence. Graveside services will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, 2019, in Riverside Cemetery with Pastor Losaline Tupoumalohi officiating. Benton Funeral Home has been entrusted with services and arrangements. Please visit Betty's online memorial page and leave a message of condolence for her family at www.bentonfh.com .

Betty was born on November 27, 1922, in Froid, MT, and was delivered by her father. She was confirmed and baptized in the Froid Lutheran Church, and accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior at the age of 13. Betty was known for her good disposition and her sweet mezzo soprano voice. In 1941, she graduated from high school, and attended Northern MT College in Havre, MT.

Due to the US involvement in World War II, there was a demand for typists and stenographers. After successfully passing a Civil Service examination, Betty was employed as a Clerk Typist at Fort Peck Dam, where U.S. Army Engineers were completing the largest earth fill dam in the world. In l945, she became secretary to the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Helena, MT. She married Daniel Charles "Chuck" Morris in 1946, and the couple moved to Seattle, WA, where Chuck was employed as a clerk in the U. S. Post Office.

In May of 1965, Betty began working as a secretary at the N.W. Division of the Franklin Life Insurance Company. In 1972 Betty then worked part-time as a secretary until 1980. She worked as a legal secretary 1980 - 1987, and as a secretary bookkeeper for the Missionary Dentist 1987 – 1996.

Betty loved children, and as she and Chuck were not blessed with any, she spent a great deal of her time sewing pretty dresses for her nieces, children of her friends and neighbors, and for "needy" children in her church, as well as for children of displaced persons.

Chuck passed away unexpected on February 18, 1995. On April 27, 1996, Betty married Ben Friesen. She joined the West Side Presbyterian Church in West Seattle, and she and Ben worshipped there every Sunday. Together they traveled and spent eleven years together before Ben passed away on November 6, 2007.

Betty remained in Seattle until 2017, when she relocated to Mendocino, CA, to live with her nephew Fred Darland and his wife Patti.

She was preceded in death by her husbands, Chuck Morris and then Ben Friesen; parents, Fred and Maud Darland; and siblings S. Thomas Darland and Mary Jane Crain.

She is survived by her three nephews; two nieces, several great and great-great nephews and nieces; stepchildren, Dyan Cannon (Diane Samille Friesen) and David Douglas Friesen; five step-grandchildren; and eight step great-grandchildren.