Cover photo for Cornelia Jane ""Teeny"" Humphres's Obituary
Cornelia Jane ""Teeny"" Humphres Profile Photo
1920 Cornelia 2017

Cornelia Jane ""Teeny"" Humphres

October 8, 1920 — June 2, 2017

Cornelia Jane ""Teeny"" Humphres died on June 2, 2017 in Wheatridge, Colorado. She was born on a wheat ranch near Milton-Freewater, Oregon on October 8, 1920 to Mildred Ione Cockburn (née Nettleship) and George Samuel ""Doc"" Cockburn. Teeny was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, one sister and two step-brothers. She was widowed twice at the deaths of her husbands, Ronald Wesley Beaty and Herbert William Humphres. Teeny is survived by two children, Jon Beaty of Seattle, WA and Jane McNellis-Wilson of Lakewood, CO and three step-children, Catherine Johnson (Tacoma, WA), Patrick Humphres (Puyallup, WA) and William Humphres (Marysville, WA). She is survived also by three grandchildren, Kate Green (Morrison, CO), Emily Kotas (Lakewood, CO) and Diana Cone (Oregon City, OR) and four great-grandchildren, Hazel Cone, Ava Green, Sam Kotas and Haldon Cushing. Teeny attended Mcloughlin High School in Milton-Freewater, OR and Oregon State College (now University) in Corvallis. At OSC, she studied Home Economics and was a member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority. After college, she moved to Yakima, WA and worked as a traffic manager at a radio station. It was there, in 1943, that she met her first husband, Wes Beaty, who was engaged in US Army training maneuvers nearby and they married shortly thereafter. After World War II, Wes' work took them to Yakima, Walla Walla and Olympia, WA, Aurora, IL and Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. Teeny worked for several years as an administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean of Students at Aurora College. She was an avid golfer into her ninth decade of life. An amazing gourmet cook, she was well-known for her exquisite dinner parties and she hosted in her home business leaders and government officials, professional associates of her husband, Wes. Teeny was a fine needle worker and gardener; as she would say, her beautiful roses bloomed their hearts out for her. She loved international travel. Teeny was a member of the Episcopal Church. Throughout her life, she belonged to and was active in PEO, a philanthropic organization, and volunteered for many other organizations as well. She surrounded herself with intelligent, thoughtful and witty friends and was quick to dissolve into deep, carefree laughter with them. Teeny and Wes retired to Olympia. After forty-four rich years of marriage, Wes died in 1987. Teeny married close family friend and recently-widowed Herb Humphres in 1988. Their ten-year marriage was filled with travel and fun living; it ended with his death in 1998. She continued to live in Olympia until 2014, when she moved to Lakewood, CO, to be closer to her daughter, Jane. From the perspective of her children and by any objective measure, Teeny was a gifted mother. More guide than autocrat, she insured that her children and grandchildren understood the practical and ethical ramifications of all possible paths to be taken. She made certain they were exposed to the richness of human cultures and was unapologetic about insisting on the family spending full afternoons in museums of art or culture. Kindness to others was her mantra. Her life's arc was rooted from the beginning with a hard existence in the yet-to-be electrified, early twentieth-century high wheat-country of northeast Oregon and anchored at the end in a society of rapid air travel, instant communication, global availability of goods and powerful electronic devices in nearly every hand. Her family has lost its matriarch. Teeny's departure has left her family with great sadness and empty places in their hearts.
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