Obituary for Betty Jo Bailey
Betty Jo Bailey, age 82, passed away on December 7, 2025, in Kanab, Utah, just weeks before her eighty-third birthday. Born on December 22, 1942, in Dickinson, North Dakota, Betty grew up in her family’s home in Dickinson and spent weekends and summers doing chores and playing on the family farm outside of town. These early years shaped her intelligence, independence, and resilience — qualities that would define her entire life.
Gifted from a young age, Betty learned music effortlessly and excelled academically. She thrived both in the classroom and in anything she set her mind to. She attended North Dakota State University, studying Home Economics. Before graduating, she welcomed her first child, Dee Anne, and later married Ron Foreman, with whom she had her son, James Westley. Their marriage lasted 13 years.
During this period, Betty worked as a school teacher while living in the Minneapolis suburbs of Golden Valley and Brooklyn Park. She began in elementary education and eventually taught Home Economics at Robbinsdale High School. It was here where she revolutionized the curriculum for Child Development classes, expanding them into Home Economics and cooking courses where students learned both the principles and the practical understanding of cooking. She led students in bold experiential projects, including visiting abortion clinics to learn and share insights with classmates. Her programs and determination often created tensions within the school, which attempted to dismiss her on several occasions. Ultimately, she resigned shortly before moving to Colorado — and celebrated the freedom of finally being able to wear jeans instead of skirts.
From early in her life, Betty stood apart as a disruptor — a woman unafraid to challenge assumptions or speak truth clearly and directly. She was not always understood by her peers or even her family, but her honesty was unwavering. Her beliefs empowered her to express brutal honesty, sometimes startling in its clarity. Betty held herself and others to high standards of integrity, and when groups she participated in strayed toward ego rather than principle, she was the one who named it. She lived by principle, not convenience.
In 1977, Betty began a new chapter, moving Dee and James to Crested Butte, Colorado, where she built a life grounded in curiosity, spiritual exploration, and mountain-town creativity. During this time, she formed the lifelong partnership that would define the rest of her journey — her 50-year union with Barry Arthur Cornman. Together, from 1977 to 1985, Betty and Barry owned and ran the Forest Queen Hotel & Restaurant, a beloved Crested Butte institution that reflected their warmth, hard work, and hospitality.
Betty was a profoundly unique soul. She read hundreds of books, and studied Esoteric Psychology and Sciences, embraced the idea of past lives, and developed a deep ability to understand people through archetypes. Her insights were intuitive, unconventional, and often transformative to those who knew her.
Drawing on her Home Economics background, Betty expanded her gifts into cooking for groups and retreats. In the 1990s she served as a chef at Isis Oasis Retreat Center in Geyserville, California, where her food nourished both body and spirit. She later continued this calling as the Head Chef and Manager for NOLS Wilderness Medicine trainings in Lander, Wyoming. Barry and Betty served thousands of NOLS Wilderness First Responders, from 1999 to 2020. Her “cooking marathons” — preparing three meals a day for students and staff — became legendary, matched only by the joy she found in the months of freedom that followed.
Betty was proud to move to Jackson (Hole), Wyoming in the 1990s to live close to her daughter Dee, Sandy, and her grandchildren Meleta and Brenna. She loved bringing them on hiking trips and treasured watching them grow into the incredible women and adults they are today.
For 40 years, Betty and Barry lived as true Nomads of the American West. Together they hiked, camped, and backpacked through the canyons and mountains of the Southwest and beyond. Few people have explored those desert labyrinths — slot canyons, mesas, and stone cathedrals — as extensively as they did. Even in her later years, when she stayed closer to camp, she continued to live immersed in nature’s rhythms. Just two months before her passing, she was still camping out of the back of their truck, living the way she loved most.
Betty is survived by her beloved life partner, Barry Cornman; her children, Dee Anne Buckstaff and James Westley Foreman; her grandchildren, Meleta Buckstaff and Brenna Buckstaff; and her sister, Patricia Dorner, niece Wendy Lee, nephews Josh Dorner, Justin Martinez, and many other beloved family members. She leaves behind a legacy of courage, curiosity, spiritual depth, and a fierce devotion to truth.
Her life was an extraordinary journey — lived fully, freely, and entirely on her own terms.
