Betty Jean Bacock passed away with her loving son Gary at her side on November 30, 2024, at the age of 97. She was under the wonderful care and loving staff and doctors at Northern Inyo Hospital. She was born in Eureka, California on November 26, 1927, and taken to her new home at Somes Bar, California where she was raised in a very large family (eventually 9 children however one passed at birth).
She was a member of the Karuk Tribe and read with enthusiasm the Tribal newsletter and Northern California newspapers. Her sisters Zona, Ethel, Helen, Ella, Shirley and Beverly along with her brother David enjoyed growing up along the pristine Salmon River and exploring the wilds of the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area. She loved to tell stories of getting ice cream once a year on the 4th of July, using the river as a refrigerator for their perishable food, attending elementary in a one room schoolhouse and trekking over the mountains to attend high school in Etna, CA.
Betty’s family grew to be very large and here is the evolution: Zona (Drake) Ferris & Wilford Ferris; Ethel (Drake) Ferris/Halla & Lester Ferris, then Rudy Halla, then David Starr; Betty was the third child; Helen (Drake) Keller/Beck & Jack Keller, then Oren Beck; Dave Drake II & Bonnie (Rails) Drake, then Adrianne “Cuddles” (Colegrove) Drake; Ella (Drake) Benedict & Paul Benedict; all of which are now deceased. Betty’s youngest sisters are Shirley (Drake) Farnum/Logston/Bates & Tom Farnum (deceased), then Bill Logston (deceased), then Doug Bates (deceased); and, Beverly (Drake) Letchworth & Travis Letchworth (deceased), then husband Doyle Bradshaw, are last living members of the original Drake family started by David Drake (I) and Lonnie (Snapp) Drake. [David and Lonnie started Drake’s Resort – Pack Outfits : Guides Furnished and would pack people out into the Marble Mountain Wilderness Area. Betty would assist them by hiking up to the camp and performing many duties for the guests. One of the special secret guests were President Herbert Hoover and his group from Stanford University. During his term of office the President designated the Marble Mountains as a Wilderness Area. The President and the Stanford group made many trips to the Marble Mountains via the Drake Pack Station.]
Betty married Cleve (Bacoch) Bacock from Laws California. Cleve was Paiute and Shoshone Indian and he passed away in 1996. They had two son’s Gary and Steven. Steve passed away at 27 years of age from leukemia, which was most likely brought on after he was struck by lightning while playing baseball in an open field in Big Pine CA in his younger years. Betty was always so proud of Gary and Steve and their accomplishments that she and Cleve supported them through it all. Gary married Helen Rosas and they will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in May 2025. Betty was in their lives and helped support through her love of their four children (her grandchildren): Alan, wife Anna, great grandson Owen 15 from Big Pine; David, wife Vicki, great grandchildren Ethan 22 and Lilly 20 from Fernley NV; grandson Bryan from San Francisco, and granddaughter Christie (Bacock) Hight, husband Shawn Hight, great granddaughter Harper and a baby on the way, from Reno NV. Betty loved the name that is to be given to her new great granddaughter, Brooke.
Betty was known as the “Great Communicator” and during her life would visit or call family and friends regularly. From her brother, sisters, brothers in-law, and sisters in-law she has many nephews, nieces, cousins, and great nephews, great nieces, (and more) and many family friends she was always wanting to visit with them. Even through this year she was always calling relatives and friends to keep up with the latest and most of the time she would share many stories of the past, which included a lot of details.
From her mother’s side of the family, she was Karuk Indian and a member of the Karuk Tribe (Orleans, Somes Bar, Happy Camp, and Yreka CA). The Somes Bar area is known as “Indian Country” and is very wild with mountains and rivers (Salmon, Trinity, and the mighty Klamath River) and very few roads. The area is home to the Karuk, Yurok, and Hupa Indians. As she grew up, she went to a one room school house called Junction Elementary School at Somes Bar and graduated in 1941. There was no High School in the area, so she had to travel a long way up the Salmon River and over the mountains to Etna, CA and had to work on a dairy farm for room and board. In addition to going to school, she learned all of the farm chores and had to drive the farmer’s tractor and truck (the farmer was too old to handle the equipment on the farm so Betty helped the farmer during WWII to stay in operation until the men returned from the war). She graduated from Etna High School in 1945.
After WWII Betty met Cleve in Los Angeles and would travel to the Owens Valley regularly and visit with family (Cleve’s mom Lizzie (Alston) Bacoch and was in Big Pine on the Reservation and his dad John Bacoch, Sr. was on the Bishop Rez) and friends, including family and friends from Sherman Indian School. As Betty retired in 1990 they moved to the Big Pine Indian Rez and Betty lived there the rest of her life and was busy visiting family and friends.
Betty lived in Highland Park (L.A.), California where she and Cleve owned a home on the top of a hill. Betty didn’t like the carpet in her living room and she decided to get a job and went to work at ITT Cannon Electric in 1955. She worked hard for six months and purchased the new carpet for their home. Betty became a supervisor and retired from ITT 35 years later in 1990. Many of her co-workers stayed in touch and would visit her long after retirement as she was a big part of the ITT Family.
Betty and her family loved the outdoors including camping, hunting, and fishing, and as she was retired she became a great Fisherman (or “Fisherperson”) as she caught a lot of Rainbow and Brown Trout, including two really big Rainbows (about 5 lbs. each hanging on her wall). Betty also liked to gamble, like many in her family, and would go to various casinos including the Paiute Palace/Wanahaa Casino. She enjoyed playing the machines and visiting with family, friends, and new casino friends.
Betty enjoyed the company of others. She would sit on her front porch with one hand holding a phone to her ear chatting about life while using her other hand to wave at the cars passing by. Visiting and calling family and friends was one of her favorite pastimes.
Betty was a great “Story Teller”. She never forgot anything! One of her favorite stories was at Christmas time in Etna, she and her sisters went home to Somes Bar during a huge snow storm. Charlie Snapp, Betty’s uncle drove the sisters home on a big caterpillar tractor. [Charlie was a Postal Carrier and delivered mail for about 73 years, the longest Post Office employee ever. He would deliver rain or shine from Etna to Somes Bar and in heavy snow would pull a sleigh behind the tractor filled with mail, much needed supplies, and various packages.] He drove Zona, Ethel, Helen, and Betty, and Gladys Robinson (Zona’s friend) over Salmon Summit to Somes Bar. They hit a huge snow pile and the food items that they transporting, eggs, oranges flew everywhere. Zona asked Charlie if she could pick up the eggs, and after getting on the road again they hit a rock and the eggs once again broke and flew everywhere and all over them. Uncle Charlie said in his quite voice, “Maybe you should have picked up the oranges!”. They finally arrived at Sawyers Bar, and they were freezing, soaked, and dripping wet. They stepped off the caterpillar and Gladys Robinson dropped her glasses in the snow. They couldn’t find them and she was blind without them. Gladys held on to one of the girls until they found her house. Finally, they got in a car and rode home to Somes Bar. David and Lonnie were happy to see their kids but were upset because they were told to wait in Etna until the snow storm was over before coming home. It’s no wonder that Betty told all of her grandkids and great grandkids to stay home the week before her 97th birthday. They all wanted to come and see Grandma Betty but the hospital staff had told her that a big storm was expected. She somewhat demanded that family stay home and stay safe. Now we know why.
Betty did not want a funeral and will be buried at Woodman Cemetery outside of Big Pine in the Spring (better weather) and a Celebration Of Life will be held with family members at that time.
