The Seattle Times
July 14, 1998

Betty Jo Urquhart Took to Military Life
by Carole Beers
Seattle Times Staff Reporter

At age 20 when BETTY JO URQUHART married Air Force CAPT. CHARLES URQUHART, she couldn't even boil water, says one daughter.  She was a small-town, Southern, Catholic girl, "a precious only child."
Yet within months this blue-eyed belle of Denison, Texas, transformed herself into the quintessential Air Force wife with
all the entertaining, travel and diplomacy the job entails.
"That was her most cherished job," said Kathy Hicks of Tacoma.  "She was a great hostess for parties, but apologized over everything.  She smiled, worried, and prayed."
She also played bridge and golf, and saw to it her family attended church in every city and country, no matter what language was spoken.
Mrs. Urquhart was so adaptable that when her husband retired from the military and started overseeing international personnel for Boeing, she flew to Iran with him on a moment's notice a few months before the revolution.
"He came and told her they were going to Iran and Mom looked at him, like 'Are you kidding?'  But she made the most of it.  They had to leave Iran after six months, and lost everything.  But that was not as important as having her family safe....Her faith was very strong."
Mrs. Urquhart, a Federal Way resident since 1971, died Friday of the effects of Alzheimer's disease.  She was 72.
She grew up in a little white house a block from the Catholic Church, and earned her high school diploma at St. Xavier Academy.  She held college scholarships, but after World War II broke out she helped log flight hours for pilots at the local air base, where she met Charles Urquhart.
The newlyweds were posted to the Azores, then moved 13 more times and "had babies all over the world," said daughter Terri Parrot of Federal Way. "I was born in an ambulance because Daddy didn't want us to mess up the Buick."
For all their responsibilities, Mrs. Urquhart and her husband had a lively social life and loved to dance.
"She and Daddy won jitterbug contests in the 1950s and 1960s," said Hicks. "They could dance, oh-my-gosh, could they dance!  At my brothers wedding in 1992 was the last time she and my father danced together and they were so cute."
Even in illness, Mrs. Urquhart remained a warm hostess.
"She made anyone who came through that door feel like a million dollars," said Hicks.  "When we were teenagers and would bring a long-haired guy, she'd be like, 'OK, this is interesting, and just carry on.  She was a peacemaker.
"She came across as naive and sweet, but she had inner strength and knew exactly what she was doing.  She made others feel like they were the ones making the decisions."
Other survivors include her husband; her children Bonnie Lindula of Graham, Pierce County; Tom Urquhart of Puyallup; and Bill Urquhart of Sacramento; and 12 grandchildren.
A Mass has been celebrated.  Donations may go to Alzheimer's Association, Western and Central Washington Chapter, 1442 N. W. 85th St., Seattle, Washington, 98117.
Charles Thomas Urquhart Jr. was born 30 August 1920 in Norfolk, Virginia. He retired from the Air Force as Colonel in 1972, joining Boeing management in Seattle, living in Turkey, Iran and Europe. He has a M.S. degree from the University of Colorado. *He married Betty Jo Kain January 4, 1947.  She was born March 5, 1926 in Denison, Texas, the daughter of J.L. Kain and Ethel Seale Kain.

	Charles Thomas Urquhart III
	Bonnie Kain Urquhart
	Kathryn Marie Urquhart
	Terri Ann Urquhart
	William Loyd Urquhart