Person

Betts, Jenny Anderson

• Jardine, Jenny Anderson
• Anderson, Jenny Anderson
• Betts, Janet Anderson

December 7, 1912 - August 1, 2003

Janet "Jenny" Anderson Betts (nee Jardine) was a long-time Whistler resident and Port McNeill, BC resident. She was born to parents Lizzie and John Alexander Jardine, both Scottish immigrants to Canada, in Kelowna, BC on December 7, 1912. Her father, John, fought in World War I with the British Columbia Regiment of the Canadian infantry, Lizzie and the family remained in Kelowna. The family moved to Vancouver after John was wounded in Mons, Belgium and sent to Vancouver General Hospital. When he was released, John found work on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) and the family settled in Squamish. John was involved in a deadly speeder accident while working on the Squamish rail line for the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway. As a result, John died August 28, 1918 in Squamish, BC, and was buried in Lynn Valley Cemetery, in North Vancouver. Jenny, her brother (Jack), and her mother, Lizzie, were living in Squamish when Lizzie found herself widowed and eight months pregnant with her third child (Robert). She packed up the house in Squamish and made the long journey to Kelowna, BC to live with her parents. She and her young family: Jenny the oldest, John Alexander (known as Jack), and the new baby Robert, stayed in Kelowna until Lizzie found work keeping house for her husband’s old friend, Tom Neiland, in North Vancouver. Tom worked for the PGE railway as a conductor, but he had always had dreams of working for himself. He bought some land and, in May 1921, moved the whole family up to Alta Lake (known today as Whistler) to start his own logging camp. Lizzie and Tom were married on May 2, 1922. This marriage was of huge financial significance to the Jardine family, as Lizzie lost her widow’s pension of $35 a month - a significant sum at the time. At first, the family lived at the Alta Lake townsite, but in January 1922, they moved down to Thomas Neiland’s first venture at Alpha Lake, where he was harvesting cedar logs to be exported to Japan. In July 1922, the export log prices of cedar logs collapsed, and so did Thomas Neiland’s business; he had to file for bankruptcy. The family moved back to North Vancouver. Later that month, Lizzie gave birth to their son, Thomas Neiland Jr. (Jenny's half-brother), at the age of 40. For three months, Thomas Sr. looked for work in Vancouver. Eventually persuaded by both a lack of employment and his wife’s desire to return to Alta Lake, he gained financing under her name. The family returned to their Alpha Lake cabin, and in 1923 they moved into an old loggers cabin at 34½ mile (present day Function Junction area) that was being sold by the crown, and this became the family's home for the next 20 or more years. Jenny married logger Wallace Oscar Betts in September 1937. After she got married, Jenny lived in a number of places, as her husband was often moving around for work, but many of those places were in the Alta Lake area, including at Parkhurst in 1938. They had four children: Louise Mary; Samuel Peter; Gerald Jardine, and Elizabeth Francis. In 1943, Wallace got a job in Port McNeill, BC and the family moved there, where they settled for many years. There, Jenny and Wallace were founders of the St. John Gualbert Church in 1946. The non-denominational church was held at the Community Hall: Wallace conducted bible study for the adults and Jenny held Sunday School. Jenny lived at Port McNeill from 1943 until 1999, when she moved to New Westminster to live with her daughter, Louise. Jenny had a labrador dog named Babe, who passed away in 2001. Jenny passed away on August 1, 2003 in Port Coquitlam, BC at the age of 90 in the care of staff at Ward 3x Valleyview.

Kelowna, BC
Vancouver
Squamish
North Vancouver, BC
Whistler
Alta Lake
Alpha Lake
Parkhurst
Port McNeill, BC
Port Coquitlam, BC

Parish founder
Sunday school teacher

Neiland, Lizzie (February 24, 1882 - December 9, 1984)

Neiland, Thomas (Sr.) (September 25, 1869 - March 1, 1949)

Betts, Samuel Peter (1940-)

Betts-Smith, Louise Mary (1938-)

Betts, Elizabeth (1950-)

Betts, Gerald Jardine (January 1944 - [?])

Neiland, Thomas Warren (Jr.) (July 29, 1922 - 1995)

Jardine, Robert "Bob" Laidlaw (September 26, 1918 - March 27, 2008)

Jardine, Jack (July 27, 1914 - Spring 1999)

Betts, Wallace Oscar (fl. 1920s-1940s)

CA-BC-BJ013

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Revised February 2018.
Revised December 2022.

1) Archival material
2) Family tree by Louise Smith
3) Petersen, Florence. "First Tracks".
4) Jenny Jardine’s memoirs
5) https://blog.whistlermuseum.org/tag/jenny-jardine/
6) https://stjohngualbertchurch.wordpress.com/about/
7) https://www.northislandgazette.com/news/facelift-from-the-faithful/
8) https://www.timescolonist.com/islander/obituary-local-giant-gerry-furney-put-port-mcneill-on-map-with-vision-and-wit-4669873
9) https://vancouversunandprovince.remembering.ca/obituary/janet-betts-1065847150