Betty Jean (Dickinson) Kent

Birth July 17, 1924, Flagstaff, AZ

Death June 03, 2020, Prescott, Arizona

Parents: Walter Edwin Dickinson and Margaret Opal “Maggie” (Smith) Dickinson

Grandparents: Alfred and Ida May (Van Deren) Dickinson

Great Grandparents

Samuel Cotton Dickinson and Nancy Jane Green Dickinson

Godfrey Van Deren and Elizabeth Ann West Van Deren

Spouse: Walter Kent

Children: 

Sherry Lee (Kent) Devilier 

W. Norman Kent

Charles Kent

Daniel Kent

Betty attended school in Camp Verde, Clemenceau Public School, and graduated high school at the old Clarkdale High School.  She got her first horse, Cotton, through earning money by babysitting and waiting tables. After graduating from high school, she worked for the Clarkdale School System until finding a better job at the Phelps Dodge smelter in Clarkdale. In 1943, she married Walter Kent in Mildred Fain’s home on Park Avenue with Mrs. Johnie Fain, author of Millie's life in the book, Echoes of the Past, Tales of Old Yavapai Vol. II, and Betty Cole as witnesses.

After the war, they sold the W Dart Ranch cattle to Norman Fain and bought the slaughterhouse in Jerome. In the year 1953, Betty was working as journalist for the Verde Independent Newspaper. On a slow news day, Betty, Joe Laiten, acting editor, and the head ranger from Tuzigoot created a front-page story, perhaps the first story declaring Jerome a ghost town. Joe and the Ranger painted a sign showing Jerome’s population decline from 15,000 to GHOST CITY.

AN ORAL HISTORY OF BETTY DICKINSON KENT