Betty Hansen

Betty Fulton Cohagan Hansen was born in Los Angeles in 1924, a child of the Depression who went to Hollywood High School where her classmates included Frances Gumm and Jason Robards. Betty was uprooted to Kansas City, Missouri for her final year of high school when her parents moved away from the coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Betty attended Kansas University, studying fashion design. Tall Betty (5’11”) was paired on a blind date with towering Stanley Hansen (6’5’’) and history ensued. The two were married in 1946 and welcomed their first child Cheryl “Chris” Christine in 1947. Betty left college and worked in advertising to help support the family while Stan finished his law degree. Their growing family lived in Kansas City, where son Stephen was born in 1953, and Boston before moving to Los Angeles.

In LA, Betty and family moved to the community of Pacific Palisades, where daughter Carol was born in 1960.  “The Palisades” was the place that Betty would come to consider as the best place she ever lived. Betty loved living the California lifestyle and when they added an outdoor pool to the house, she designed a cascading rock waterfall  – a pool feature that was quite unique at the time. A favorite family memory was watching the local raccoons enjoying themselves in “their” waterfall. She loved to travel and “forced” the family on a European tour in summer 1966. She was very artistic and had a keen eye for art and design.

When Betty and Stan divorced, Betty stayed in the Palisades and returned to work. She worked retail for a few years, most notably at one of the original Williams-Sonoma stores on Rodeo Drive in B.H. She had wonderful stories of meeting such notables as Julia Child, James Beard, Jacques Pepin and others. Eventually Betty obtained her real estate license and worked in that industry locally. Looking toward her retirement years, Betty moved to Ashland, Oregon in 1990 and never looked back. She passed away on Sept. 17, 2015 with her children by her side.

She was preceded in death by daughter, Christine. She leaves behind children Stephen Hansen (Sue Kraemer) and Carol (Bruce) Butterfield; grandchildren Hayden Jacobsen-Vida (Alisa), Shayna Hansen, and Holly and Quinn Butterfield; and step-sister Patte Barry. Special thanks to Vonnie Flowers, Patte Barry and the Rougier Family.