Dolores M. Bettencourt

On April 15, 2023 Dolores Marie Bettencourt passed peacefully in her sleep at the age

of 86 after a long struggle with dementia. She was under the wonderful care of the staff

at Pear Valley Memory Care in Central Point, OR and hospice.

Dolores was born May 3, 1936, in San Jose, CA to Joseph A. and Marie C. Bermudes.

Her parents immigrated as children from Spain to the Santa Clara Valley, then known

for its beauty and abundance of agricultural crops, to farm. In addition to raising four

children, Marie worked in the canneries. Dolores would tell stories of hard work, picking

beans on the family farm in Sunnyvale and playing with her brothers Richard and

Joseph. And she was always saddened when talking about her kid brother Ronald, who

died at a young age in a tragic auto accident.

Dolores graduated from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale in 1954. In February 1955

she married Manuel J Bettencourt after he returned from service in the Navy. Manuel

and Dolores moved to the Edgewood, CA ranch in 1967 where they raised angus cattle.

Dolores spent her years as a homemaker and wife of a rancher in Edgewood and later

in Dairy, OR. She was blessed with a large family as mother to four children, Jannette

Marie Matchett, Manuel Joseph Bettencourt Jr., Susan Jane Fitterer and David John

Bettencourt, grandmother to 12 and great grandmother to 15.

Dolores’ hobbies included knitting and crocheting afghans, reading, gardening and, in

her days on the Edgewood ranch, canning and making the most amazing blackberry

jams and pies. She also had a special place in her heart for cats, adopting any stray

that wondered to the house. Punchy and Oscar were her most beloved.

While in her later days she began to lose memories of people, places and things she

enjoyed, she loved her family dearly.

A funeral service will be held Friday, May 5th at Perl Funeral Home, 2100 Siskiyou

Boulevard, Medford, OR at 11:00 am, followed by a Celebration of Life at 514 Stone Pointe

Drive, Central Point, OR.

You are invited to upload photos of your favorite memories for the memorial video. Click the link to

contribute to the story of Dolores’ life.

https://www.tributeslides.com/up/30397124995841

Dolores loved animals, especially her cats, Donations can be made in her name to Rescue Ranch Animal

Shelter in Yreka at: https://rrdog.networkforgood.com/projects/130886-general-donations