Elizabeth Clark Wellington O'Neill

Elizabeth Clark Wellington O’Neill passed peacefully on January 15, 2025. She was 98 and ½ years young. “Betty” was predeceased by her husband of 55 years, Donald Bailey O’Neill and her grandson, Brendan Patrick O’Neill. She is survived by her children, Donald Wellington O’Neill (Sally), Laura Anne O’Neill, and Mary Elizabeth O’Neill Christ (Doug), her grandchildren, Andrew Christ, Donald O’Neill (Lexie), Allison Christ (Gabe Albuquerque), and Maxwell O’Neill, as well as great grandsons, Fitz O’Neill and Baker O’Neill. 

Betty’s Wellington and Clark ancestors were pioneers from New England and Nova Scotia, who settled in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1850s. She was born in San Francisco and grew up in Berkeley, California. 

Among her fondest childhood memories were summers spent at grandmother Wellington's spread in Clipper Gap, northeast of Auburn, California, where her sometimes gruff father Arthur indulged his children with horses of their own and a swimming pool in the mid-1930s, during the depression. 

She graduated from Stanford University in 1948, the year she was named “Sweetheart of Sigma Chi” by that fraternity. At Stanford, she met her husband, Don, a “Sig”, who received his master’s in petroleum engineering in the same year. 

They had a whirlwind romance, accompanied by Don’s piano playing and the music they shared. In June, Betty and Don visited his family in Santa Monica during which visit Don asked her to marry him. They wrote a song together about their love and plans called “Hand in Hand.” Don and Betty were married that December. 

Don’s career with Shell Oil Company led Betty’s family to live in many far-flung places including, after California, the bayou country of Louisiana, New Orleans, New England, the Netherlands, Denver, Houston, California again, and finally returning to Denver, Colorado. 

Betty was an accomplished artist, painting in both oils and watercolor, having studied under some well-known artists in both New Orleans and The Hague. Over her lifetime she produced an extensive and impressive body of work. 

Betty was involved with the Girl Scouts for over 90 years, first as a child, and later as a troop leader, and then as a staff professional. Later in life, she earned a master’s degree in psychotherapy, with an emphasis on art therapy. She counseled families experiencing childhood cancer and attended related summer camps as a staff adviser for 15 years. She was also a Children’s Hospital volunteer in the playrooms. Betty was a kindergarten assistant at the Montessori School in Lone Tree and at Willow Creek Elementary in Centennial, both in the Denver area. 

She joined the Cap and Gown Society at Stanford, was a long-time parishioner of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, belonged to the PEO Sisterhood, and was a proud member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames in America

Her surviving family is grateful for the time spent with Betty in her final weeks, days, and hours. She is missed dearly, now and forever. 

                                                                                         Hand in Hand

Springtime, romance time 

Both go hand-in-hand 

That’s when all this happened to us, no thought or plan 

Our eyes met, our hearts skipped 

and we both knew that love had found us 

Your hand touched mine, I looked at you 

And life was bright and new 

Springtime, romance time 

will never be gone 

In our hearts forever, they always will live on 

I am yours now, you’re mine now 

And we both understand what love is 

The world is ours, and we have planned 

A lifetime Hand in Hand