Bettie Louise (Eustice) Crandall

On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at the age of 91, our wonderful mother, Bettie Louise Crandall, passed peacefully from this earthly plane to join James Crandall, our father and her husband and partner of 70 years, in an eternal embrace and more adventures together.

It was her favorite kind of day - rainy with a cup of tea and the warmth of the fireplace in the home she loved and had occupied for 35 years. The flock of 40 or more wild turkeys that appeared just after our father passed in 2016 and the local deer were just outside the windows as always, sharing her final hours with her. She leaves us behind as her three children (Donald, Debra and Daniel Crandall) to miss her physical presence and love, but to celebrate all that she and our father provided for us throughout our lives and all that she accomplished with hers.

Mom was born in a Watsonville hospital at a time when her family of 6 lived in a tent on Trabing road, after having been displaced from their 160 acre farm in Concordia, Kansas by the great Dustbowl and Depression. Until she was around 10 years old, she and her family were migrant farm workers (à la "The Grapes of Wrath") following the crops from Washington State to Arizona. But the Watsonville/Aptos area was always her home that they returned to and where she went to school and ultimately raised our family. To the day of her passing she never really "lived" more than a few miles from that tent location. She loved the Central County area from her days fishing on the bow of the cement ship with her dad or cutting Apricots in the orchard for the drying racks (she was the fastest cot cutter in the Pajaro valley at the age of 10!) alongside her mother, father and 4 older siblings.

Mom loved flowers of all types from her earliest days as a child in the fields to her last. Amongst others, she belonged to the Monterey Bay Dahlia society and the American Begonia Society and she worked for years with the UCSC Arboretum. She was the department chair of the Horticulture Department at the Santa Cruz County Fair for many, many years and brought a plethora of new ideas, individuals and groups into the Fair during her tenure. The Fair was one of her many passions in her life and she was always tied to it and many of the people that she worked with there.

Mom was amazing at anything she put her creative talents towards. Dried and fresh flower arrangements, painting, photography, gardening and much more drew her interest and the results were always impressive. Her passion and natural eye for design resulted in so many incredible creations, most often just for herself and friends.

Our parents were both extremely talented in so many ways, but their true souls were immersed in being brave and adventurous outdoors folks for their entire lives. From the time they were married they were explorers of the mountains and deserts and coastlines of the west. As kids we were exposed to so many great experiences camping, fishing, hiking, gathering and beachcombing throughout California and the surrounding states. Boy, do we have some wilderness stories! Mom was the consummate collector of rocks and shells, pine cones, mosses and dried cactus skeletons to hopefully use in her beautiful dried arrangements and floral displays, or decorate our back yard. Dad and we kids were her minions of transport. In their later years, mom and dad traveled throughout the west of the country in their small motorhome, always exploring what was over the next hill, often meeting up with one or more of us kids on their travels. More than once they showed up unexpectedly as I was getting off of a Rogue River kayaking trip, or in northern Scotland at the 1997 Surf Kayaking World championships I was competing in.

Mom was famously known as "Ma Crandall" by Surf Kayakers from around the world who had enjoyed our parent's hospitality over almost 3 decades when they travelled to Santa Cruz for the annual Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival every March at Steamer Lane. Mom and Dad hosted incredible gatherings where homemade food (mom was a great cook!) and camaraderie overflowed among kayakers from everywhere and some years there were over 40 competitors from various countries sleeping on the floors for the week.

Our mother's indomitable spirit, feisty tenacity, pioneer strength and perpetual love of life, family, animals and everything in nature will always be with us in our hearts and with those she touched. But, the turkeys and deer and Mother Nature herself are all a little quieter these days in their observance of her absence.

Be Kind to those you love and to others as well, and live life to its fullest, for it is a gift.

Thank you for being the best mom ever. We will miss you but you will be with us always in our hearts and souls, in the clouds and flowers and natural things in this world and on the rainy days around warm fireplaces with a cup of tea.

Love always and forever, Deb, Don and Dan.

A Celebration of life will be held at Valencia Hall, 2555 Valencia Rd. Aptos on May 9, 2026 from 1-5pm.

Published in The Pajaronian · April 7, 2026