In Memoriam: Betty Louise (Ricketts) Golding

Betty Louise (Ricketts) Golding, a life-long resident of the City of Perris, California, and a 15-year member of The Friday Flyer staff, died Friday, August 18, 2017 in Highland, Utah at the age of 91. Betty lived the last five months of her life in the Memory Care Unit of Highland Glen, an assisted living center in Utah. She sold the Perris home earlier this year that she and her husband Theo “Ted” Golding had built on 6th Street in 1963.

Betty was born on October 4, 1925 in Inglewood, California. In her young adult years, she and her husband traveled the world and country while in the military. But nearly all her life was spent living in Perris. Her family moved to the Perris area when she was seven years old. She graduated from Perris High School in 1943. She married Ted Golding in Perris on December 15, 1944. Her parents, Ralph Kenneth Ricketts and Anna Marie (Hutton) Ricketts, owned ice and flower businesses in downtown Perris. Her six children all graduated from Perris High School. She was extremely active in Perris PTAs and the Perris High School Athletic Booster Club, where she continued serving with her husband after all her children had graduated. Betty was a true Perris Pioneer. Her Ricketts family has been honored as the 2014 Perris Pioneer Family.

Betty worked as a circulation manager for The Press-Enterprise Company in Perris and Sun City from 1965 to 1990. In 1992, Betty left retirement and worked for her son, Chuck, as the Office Manager of Golding Publications, a newspaper company in Canyon Lake, CA. She held that job until her final retirement in 2007.

Betty was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and helped the local church grow from a handful of members in the early 1960s who met in American Legion Halls and barns to thousands of members who now live in the boundaries of that early congregation. Betty was an organist and pianist and shared her talents as the congregational organist for most of her life. She loved children and had many opportunities to teach their Sunday classes and also to help them sing. She served a full-time mission for the church for one year in 1991 in the California Riverside Mission.

Betty is survived by three sons, Douglas (Dalene) Golding of American Fork, Utah, Charles (Gwen) Golding of Silverton, Oregon and Jerry Golding of Perris; by a brother, Edward (Pat)Ricketts of Shingle Springs, California; and 20 Grandchildren, 55 Great Grandchildren and 8 Great Great Grandchildren.

We rejoice imagining her joyous reunion with these precious loved ones who preceded her in death: her beloved husband Theo “Ted” Golding (1981), two sons, Kenneth Golding (1975) and Dennis (Kathy) Golding (2005), a daughter, Loysann Golding (Keith) Little (1982) and her sister Elinor (Bill) Ricketts Barnes (2006).

In countless ways, Mom defined what it is to be a generous matriarch. Ever gregarious, she continually sought to engage with others in the kindest of ways, reaching out to loved ones and strangers alike with friendliness and compassion. Her magnetic personality will always be remembered and missed.

Services will be held at the Perris Ward Building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 225 Mildred Street, Perris, on Thursday, August 24. A viewing will be held at 10:00 a.m. and the funeral services will begin at 11:00 a.m. A private burial will take place at Riverside National Cemetery.

Special thanks to Tom Bloom and those at Murrieta Valley Funeral Home for their amazing help with the services.