Bettie Jean Schaefer

Bettie Schaefer— The Portland Girl

(1925—2015)

Bettie Schaefer has been a resident of Hearthstone Of Beaverton for over four years. She was born at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon on April 2, 1925.  (Just barely missed April Fool’s day)  Bettie was the youngest of four brothers and three sisters.

Bettie vividly remembers her childhood of growing up in Northeast Portland on Graham Street. Her parents were of German heritage and they all attended the neighborhood Ebenezer Congregational Church on Stanton Street.

High School for Bettie was a great experience, as she went to Commerce High School on SE 26th. (now called Cleveland High School)  This is were Bettie learned skills such as short hand that helped her land a job with Fred Meyer Corporation.  Working for Fred Meyer in the early days was both interesting and challenging. Bettie saw Fred Meyer (the man) everyday, although she did not work directly for him. Bettie was in charge of payroll for all the Fred Meyer stores.  Everything was done manually, as computers did not exist then!

According to Bettie, Fred Meyer was a shrewd business man. He was always looking at the books, seeing what was most profitable. He and his closest assistant always talked to each other in German.  Back then, Fred Meyer only had a few stores; all in Portland and Vancouver.

While working at Fred Meyer in 1946, Bettie married Glenn Schaefer, who had grown up in the same neighborhood. Glen was in the Navy at the time and he had spent the first part of his Navy career in the South Pacific in World War II as a machinist aboard a ship.

Bettie has very good artistic talent. She used to make a variety of crafts in a basement workshop. Her workshop was just around the corner from Glen’s basement machine shop. For them it was nice having a full sized basement in their house on 25th and Ainsworth in Portland.

Christmas decorations and crafts were Bettie’s specialty. She made wreaths, ornaments, and table displays. Most of her crafts were made with natural components such as cones from trees.  Everything was glued in place with her trusty glue gun which Janice Aschenbach (Bettie’s niece) still has today.

About 1960, Glenn bought a tiny little beach house in Falcon Cove, right next to Manzanita. It was a little cabin with looked out onto the Pacific Ocean.  They would go there to stay every once in a while. Glenn sold the property a few years after they bought it. Bettie could have killed him for selling it!  To this day, she loved going to the beach.

Another part of Bettie’s life was both collecting antiques and buying/selling antiques as a business. For several years she had a booth known as Bettie’s Cupboard in a mall on 42nd avenue near Sandy Boulevard where she sold glassware and other smaller antiques. At her house on Ainsworth street, she had an entire houseful of antique oak furniture.  When the house was sold in 2011, Bettie gave Janice Aschenbach most of the antique furniture, which is still in use today.

Bettie loved all the activities available at Hearthstone Of Beaverton. She was involved in puzzles, Scrabble, Bingo, and playing card games. While in her apartment, her cat Blackie was the center of attraction. Blackie was the topic of a previous newsletter article when she decided to go “exploring” outside. Fortunately for both Bettie and Blackie, the exploration trip was only a few days long and it ended well.