A longtime Mancos resident turns 100 on Saturday, May 16, and her family members hope to mobilize 100 people to send her birthday cards in honor of the occasion.
Betty Mauler is an active church and community member – and is part of a family of five generations.
She also has a day named after her. In 2015, the Mancos Town Board proclaimed May 16 to be “Betty Mauler Day.”
“In honor of the lifetime of contribution by Mrs. Betty Mauler to her family and the Mancos community, I hereby proclaim May 16, 2015, as Betty Mauler Day,” then-Mayor Rachael Simbeck said at the May 13 board meeting.
Mauler was born in 1920. She graduated from Mancos High School in 1939, and married George Mauler. The two farmed east of Mancos until George died in 1967.
After her husband’s death, Betty Mauler worked as a waitress and at a local grocery store.
She also raised three daughters, Carolyn, Dorothy and Louise. The three of them live in the Four Corners region and care for her, according to Mauler’s great-granddaughter Tiffany Avery.
In the Town Board’s 2015 proclamation, trustees lauded Mauler’s service to the St. Rita’s Catholic Church, where she had been a member for 75 years.
“She is a mainstay in the church congregation, offering her homemade baked cookies and sweet breads for the parishioners to enjoy after Sunday Mass,” the proclamation states.
Avery said Mauler remains an active community member in Mancos.
“She enjoys sewing, gardening and playing a good old game of cards,” Avery told The Journal.
Avery hopes that for Mauler’s centennial birthday Saturday, she can receive 100 birthday cards. Mauler is currently residing at the Valley Inn, 211 E. Third Alley, Mancos, CO 81328.
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