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Agnes was the eldest child of Andrew and Agnes Sproat Little, who emigrated from Scotland separately and were married in the United States. Agnes was born on December 17, 1905, in Boise. Andrew Little was one of Idaho’s leading sheepmen. During the 1920s, his sheep outfit was reputed to have been the largest in the United States, operating out of Emmett, Idaho, with over 100,000 sheep. There were five Little children. The second was Agnes’ sister, Jessie Little Naylor, who died in 1984, having operated the Highland Livestock and Land Company for many years. They had three brothers: Drew, who ran the home place and other ranches after his father’s death and who died in 1962; Robert, who died in 1935 in a truck wreck on the North Fork of the Payette; and David Little, the youngest, who [in 1989] continues to oversee his sons’ cattle operations in Gem, Ada, and Valley counties. Agnes attended public schools in Emmett. Then she went to the University of Washington at Seattle for two years and transferred to Wellesley College, an Ivy League women’s college in Massachusetts, from which she was graduated about 1927.
In the summer of 1929 Laurence Bettis visited the Little’s summer range
in Long Valley at Belvidere with his father, Dr. H.S. Bettis (a friend of Andy
Little), Clinton Moore, and Walter Gooding. There Laurence met Agnes, who
fetched home brew from the well to serve them.
On September 20, 1930, Laurence and Agnes were married. The Bettises moved to Wood River where Laurence owned and operated a cattle ranch for nearly thirty years. Agnes enjoyed being a housewife on the ranch. Although she belonged to the Junior League of Boise, the Blaine County Red Cross, and the P.E.O. sisterhood of Hailey, she was not dependent on the company of others for her happiness. She liked living out on the ranch under the mountains of Wood River. Friends from Boise, family members, and even Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway (on a duck hunt) enjoyed dropping in to the Bettis ranch and finding a gracious welcome from Agnes’ renowned hospitality. She was an excellent listener, rather shy and reserved, especially in comparison to her gregarious husband. Agnes was frugal and practical in personal habits as well as business decisions. She was tall (five feet, seven inches) and lean, and she wore her long, dark brown hair in a bun. She dressed conservatively. The Bettis’ son Harry was born several days after the death of his grandfather, Dr. Harry Sylvester Bettis, in October 1934, and was given his paternal grandfather’s name. During his college years, the name was changed to Harry Little Bettis. Laurence and Agnes’ second son died during a difficult childbirth on April 18, 1937. When her father died in 1941, Agnes inherited several farms on the Emmett bench, which she sold, and a ranch at Norwood, southwest of Lake Fork. Agnes rented the Norwood Ranch for years to her brother David and bequeathed it to her son Harry. Agnes Bettis served on the board of the Idanha Hotel in Boise, which was owned mainly by Aichman and McMillan family interests. (Tom McMillan and John McMillan were Agnes’ maternal uncles. Robert Aichman’s wife was her aunt.) The Bettises sent their son Harry to the California Preparatory School in the Ojai Valley in California in 1946, and later to the Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. They spent part of every winter in Santa Barbara and then in Mazatlan, Mexico. Laurence had suffered a heart attack and preferred exercising on the beach, walking, and swimming. Agnes was tolerant, if not enthusiastic, of these excursions.
In 1958 the Bettises turned the ranch near Gannett over to their son
Harry and moved to Boise to 1424 Warm Springs Avenue where they resided for ten
years. Agnes was a life long member of the Presbyterian Church. In Boise, she
supported the Booth Memorial Home and was a member of its board when she died of
cancer on May 19, 1968, at the age of 63. --by Carol L. MacGregor (1990) Sources: Bettis, Harry L. Conversations with the author. Shadduck, Louise. Andy Little, Idaho Sheep King. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1990. The Papers The bulk of the Agnes Little Bettis papers consist of tax statements and receipts for Little family lands in Valley County, Idaho, 1943-1957. Her papers also include three letters (1928-1930) from her father, Andrew Little, “the Sheep King of Idaho,” to Doctor Harry S. Bettis, who became her father-in-law upon her marriage to Laurence Moore Bettis in 1930. The collection also contains papers relating to the estates of her parents, Andrew and Agnes Sproat Little. These estate papers are closed until the year 2014. Container list Box 13: Agnes Little Bettis Folder 1 Biographical
Material Andrew and Agnes Little estate papersClosed until year 2014 Box 14: Little estate papers Folder 1 Andrew Little estate: 1941-1942 (closed) Return to Moore-Cunningham-Bettis collection main page Return to Special Collections home page For comments or questions about this page, contact Special Collections Department This page last changed: 9 September 2004
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