Betty Jean Curran Poulter Obituary (1924 - 2019)

Betty Jean was born in Bakersfield, California, to Hugh Curran and Neletta DeLong Curran. She had one sister, Shirley Ann, now deceased. Her grandfather, James Curran, came from a family of Irish immigrants. He settled in Bakersfield, California, where he became a Justice of the Peace, a community leader and business owner. Bakersfield Sandstone Brick Company was formed in 1903 as a manufacturer of common brick and other building materials. The business spanned at least 3 generations with sales to both commercial and retail customers. Her grandmother, Mary Gardner Swain, was the descendant of whalers who originally settled Nantucket Island. She was also the first woman to register to vote in Kern County. Her father, Hugh Curran, began the Mobil Home Corporation in Bakersfield after WWII. He built homes on an assembly line which were then moved by truck to the job site where they were placed on concrete foundations. Her mother, Neletta, was a wife and mother who cared for their beautiful homes and organized wonderful holiday dinners and family gatherings. Betty Jean graduated from USC in 1946 and married Joe A. Davis, later divorced. She remarried James E. Pugh, a WWII pilot. He died in a plane crash while working as a commercial crop-duster. She began her professional life in Bakersfield as a real estate saleswoman. She worked for her father selling homes at the Mobil Home Corporation. She earned her broker’s license and opened her own realty, Crest Properties. In addition, she became a businesswoman when she opened Honey Bee, a health food store. She sold her business and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1976. Friends introduced her to William Irvin Poulter, and they were married in 1978. He was the love of her life. Irv was the father of six children with his first wife, Kay, who had passed away. Irv and Betty Jean raised his youngest son, Michael, and were together until his death in 1999. Betty Jean had many health problems over the years. In the end, she went peacefully, dying of natural causes. She is survived by three children: Sara Davis, Reid Davis (Molly), and Carolyn Southard (Marvin); grandsons: Patrick Wade (Lindsay) and Adam Wade (Casey); and great-grandson, Curran James Wade. Nieces and nephew, children of her sister, Shirley Ann, are Linda Ramirez, Nancy Scanlan (Nick), Giovanna Mueller (Omar) and Gary Giumarra (Janet) and their children. Also survived by loving Poulter family – Barbara Hickman (Ray), Marilyn Baumueller (Matthew), Janine Michie (Les), Bill Poulter (Carol Dawn), Deanna Mahoney (Bryan), Michael Poulter (Heidi) and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There will be a Celebration of Life on Friday, December 13, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. at the Latter-day Saints Chapel located at 160 East 4600 South in Murray, UT. Interment is at Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California.