Vivian Garner Cottrell

Betty Scraper Garner Basketry – 1993 Tahlequah, Oklahoma (As written by Vivian Garner Cottrell)

Betty Scraper Garner was born and lived in the Old Green community west of Westville, Oklahoma in Adair County. She attended high school at Haskell in Lawrence, Kansas. Betty enlisted in the Navy WAVES and was stationed at various naval bases in the country during WWII. After she was honorably discharged, she began her career in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She worked at Jones Academy, in Hartshorne, Oklahoma as a dormitory matron. She retired in 1973, a year after her husband, Wallace C. Garner, retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During her first years of retirement, Betty and her sister, Lenora Hamilton took basket weaving classes taught by basket weaver, Thelma Forrest. After the classes ended, Betty continued to weave baskets from commercial reeds and dyes. She taught her children and grandchildren to weave. Her family represented three generations of basket weavers. Over several years, Betty and her daughters would weave together in the evenings and weekends and sell their baskets to local gifts shops in Cherokee, Adair and Sequoyah counties. Most weavers have the preferred weaving materials, and Betty enjoyed working and weaving with white oak splints, honeysuckle and buck brush runners. With the assistance of her family and close friends to split the white oak, Betty would use natural dye materials and weave the white oak splints to make large waste baskets and "egg baskets" as she called them. In the summer time, she hosted several tourists in her home. The garage was converted to a den where she displayed her baskets and other craft items, as well as those of her children and grandchildren. Several gift shop owners/managers would call her to see if she would open her home to those wanting to see and purchase her baskets. Betty enjoyed having her guests wonder through the den admiring her and her family’s baskets. She made a few sales too. During the early 90’s, Betty was asked to teach at area community centers in Tahlequah, Muskogee, Bell, Watts, and Porter. She loved teaching others and especially the elderly. Betty would say that basket weaving was therapeutic for our hands and fingers. Most could weave the wider flat reed better and some of her students entered their basket in fairs and won ribbons. They would display their winning baskets in class. Betty was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 1992, but that did not hamper her spirit in educating those interested in basketry. She continued to teach others when she could and always had a positive word to say to those who came to see her at her home. Betty was honored as a Living Treasure for the Art of Basketry in September 1993. She sat as she always had in her lawn chair on the square during the Cherokee Holiday watching the parade and then turning toward the stage to hear the Chief’s speech during the State of the Nation address. When Mr. John Ketcher announced those who had been chosen to receive the National Treasure’s award and her name was called, it was one of her proudest moments. She was unaware that she had been selected to receive the honor and the expression on her face was priceless. She continued to weave with her daughter, Vivian, until she lost the strength in her hands to hold the weavers. Even though she could not weave, Mom, would admire the baskets and hold them when finished and would always say, "This is a good basket, it feels so good!"

Betty would succumb to her illness in June 1997.