Troy celebrates local legend’s 103rd with a parade

Loss forever altered Betty Mullins’ life before she was five days old.

Her mother, Eva, died from complications tied to Betty’s premature birth. Her father, George, was left to raise five other children while working a ranch near Anatone, Wash.

Betty’s grandmother, Margaret Mullins, and Betty’s aunt, Lena Mullins Rives, traveled from Troy to Anatone and brought Betty back to the small community along the Kootenai River where she has lived for 103 years.

She graduated from Troy High School in 1935.

Loss returned with a vengeance in December 1951 when Betty’s husband, Benjamin Brown, and the couple’s young son, Lewis “Buddy” Brown, drowned after their boat capsized in Savage Lake.

“It was bad but we lived through it,” Betty said Tuesday.

With the support of the community of Troy, she raised her surviving children – Judith, Margie and Tony.

Troy turned out again Tuesday to mark Betty’s 103rd birthday a few days early with a drive-by celebration. A fire truck, sheriff’s office cruisers and a host of vehicles passed by Betty’s home on Kalispell Avenue. She sat in her sun washed front yard and waved and beamed as the celebrants wished her well.

Betty was born on the cusp of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and turned 103 as COVID-19 continued as a national and international crisis.

Betty was asked to speculate about why and how she has lived so long.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Her daughter Judith Nielsen said Betty told her, “I guess God’s just not ready for me yet.”

Nielsen wondered whether her mother might have developed a strong immune system by surviving the era of the Spanish flu.

And then there’s genetics.

Betty’s aunt, Lena Mullins Rives, lived until she was 103, Nielsen said.

Rives and her husband, Ernest “Bam” Rives, ran Rives Court as a boarding house in Troy. Betty helped out at Rives Court, which catered for many years to railroad crews.

Later, Betty and Benjamin built what became the Silver Spur, originally named the Roadside Inn.

The two met when Ben worked at a butcher shop in Troy. Originally from North Dakota, Ben and his family moved to Troy in the 1930s. The couple married in 1940.

Nielsen said her father loved baseball and music and played in a band in Troy.

She said her mother’s memory of some of those years is sketchy.

“The shock of Dad and Buddy’s death pretty much shut her down for a while, I think,” Nielsen said.

And the family was dirt poor as her mother raised the children alone, she said.

Nielsen recalls taking a bath in a horse trough that was brought indoors for the weekly ritual.

Betty’s children were grown before she married again. In 1984, she wed Bob Peterson. He died several years later.

A constant throughout Betty’s life has been her church. She is a longtime member of Troy United Methodist. Pastor Karen Disney was one of the people who stopped Tuesday at Betty’s house to wish her well.

Disney, like others who left their vehicles to speak to Betty, wore a face mask.

“Betty has always been part of the church,” Disney said. “She is a beloved member.”

JoAnn Hadley stopped to pay her respects.

“I love her,” Hadley said. “She is just the sweetest lady. And strong.”

Mary Jo Goettle brought flowers.

“We love her. She is a beautiful person,” Goettle said.