Betty (Wiltshire) Trevarthen

Ancestors

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Lianne Trevarthen [send private message]

Biography

Betty was born in 1930. Betty Wiltshire was the daughter of Edward Wiltshire and Kathleen Barry and one of nine children.

The family lived in a remote part of Taranaki and Betty, when she was old enough to earn money, went to work at the Wangamomona Hotel. The town's population was declining, and the Wiltshire family went to Auckland, possibly as a result of her father's employment.

Before her marriage she lived in Remuera Road, in Auckland, and was working in picture theatres as a projectionist.

She married Henry Trevarthen a butcher in Auckland in 1953. They had four children and they both lived and worked in Auckland. Their sons were William, Jeffery, and Ian, and they also had a daughter Gail Loretta Trevarthen.

They were first living on Waiheke Island, at Surfdale, and Betty had to get the ferry to Auckland when her first son was about to be born.

They had a general store business in Swanson, which was all farmland and bush when they lived there.

They then purchased a dairy in Otahuhu - Princes Street Corner Dairy, and after living first at Walters Road in Otahuhu, they bought a home at 18 Fencible Place, Otahuhu. Their boys remember being ferried by their mother to many sports practices as they were involved in cricket and soccer. She also settled the children into the local Catholic School, where the teachers were nuns.

When they sold the business her husband Henry returned to work at the Freezing works, plying his trade as a butcher, and their eldest son also went to work there.

Betty took on part time work, working in the Otahuhu Post Office and then in retail shops. One shop she worked for was in Otahuhu, a book store that was owned by one of her son's mother-in-law & stepfather-in-law.

She enjoyed knitting a great deal and was constantly knitting garments for the family, first the immediate family and then grandchildren as they came along.

They had a small windfall in a lottery and were able to travel overseas, which they enjoyed a great deal - travelling to the US to see their daughter. They then downsized when they retired and bought a home unit on a back-lot in Papatoetoe at Kimpton Road.

Betty passed away at Middlemore Hospital in 2011 in the presence of her eldest son and daughter-in-law.

Sources

• Personal recollection of children of Betty Trevarthen
• Death certificate (NZ Births Deaths and Marriages)
• New Zealand Electoral Rolls