Betty (Horse) Cogdill was born June 24, 1947 in Chadron, Nebraska. She attended Kenwood Elementary and graduated from Chadron High School in 1965. Betty married the love of her life, Terry Cogdill, on June 22, 1968. Together, they have two children; Ross Boog in Ogalalla, NE and Matthew John (Andrea) in Choctaw, OK. During their almost 49 years of marriage, Terry and Betty enjoyed raising their children and spending time with their grandchildren. They enjoyed utilizing their RV for adventures in Moab, Utah, attending Husker games and traveling in order to spend time with family and friends. After Terry passed away in 2017, Betty lived in Chadron for six more years. In October 2022, after countless offerings to move to Lincoln, Betty said, “I’m ready to be with my family again.” Betty made plans for the relocation to Lincoln to take place during March 2023. Betty was aware Matt & Andrea had transfer requests in process for their jobs and the potential to move to Oklahoma was good. When the transfer acceptance came through, it was Betty who made the final decision as to whether the family stayed in Lincoln or moved to Oklahoma. She said, “I’m ready for a new adventure. Let’s become Okies! If we don’t like it, we can always come back.” Betty orchestrated the move from Lincoln to Oklahoma. She was the Commander In Chief over Matthew, grandson Jordan and great-grandson Carter and ensured things went well. In May 2023, Betty officially became an Oklahoma resident and even accidentally registered herself as a Democrat for voting purposes, but made a quick return trip in order to correct the error. Betty enjoyed living in Choctaw and meeting new people. Often, she could be heard saying, “This feels like home. Everyone is so friendly here. I guess this is home, isn’t it?” When the winter storm predictions came out, Betty became concerned as it was supposed to be a “bad winter”. When she found out the “bad winter would produce around 6” of snow for the season, she said, “That’s it?! That’s the entire season and not one day?? I can handle that kind of winter!” In fact, Betty handled that winter utilizing less than half her winter wardrobe and scheduled a garage sale, for the following spring, in order to sell off the other half. Betty deemed Friday nights to be “Family Night” and would ponder which casino the family would attend for the evening. She loved to play slot machines and meet new people. It was easy to find Betty in the casino because she was normally surrounded by the new friends she made that evening. Betty made friends everywhere she went in Oklahoma. On numerous occasions, she would meet people with Nebraska ties who would comment on her Chadron State or Huskers shirt. She was always amazed at the number of Nebraska/Oklahoma connections. Betty attended, and became a member of, Choctaw Road Baptist Church. Every Sunday, after church and on yhe way to breakfast, she would say, “I can’t believe I’m a member of a Baptist church.”, then she would start a discussion about the sermon and ask what everyone took away from it. She bought a new bible and attended a women’s bible reading plan group with her daughter in law. Betty became friends with one of the pastor’s moms and had plans to become more active within the congregation. Betty took her dog, Snickers, everywhere from the grocery store to the hardware store. Betty enjoyed spending time with Snickers and her grand-dogs during the day. The dogs appreciated her, too. One of the dogs often brought Betty gifts of appreciation, but seemed confused when Betty would holler for Matt. Betty explained she likes squirrels, rabbits, opossum and moles, but she likes them most when they’re still alive and told the dogs to stop bringing her presents. Betty was constantly learning about flowers, plants, grass and trees in the south. She couldn’t believe it when she saw peonies planted a few weeks before Christmas. Living on an acreage was a new experience for the Oklahoma Cogdill family and everyone chipped in for yard work. It was always neat to see Betty using Terry’s riding lawn mower. One day, she was “mowing” on it in the back yard for over an hour, looked concerned and stopped. She said to Matt, “I don’t think the blade is cutting any longer.” Matt inspected the mower and asked Betty when she pulled the blades up or if they had been up the entire time. Betty laughed, realized she never put the blades down and said, “That was a lot of work. I’m done mowing for the day. You guys mow and I’ll sit over here and watch.” Betty turned 77 this year, loved life with a child-like excitement, and had an amazing health care team. Betty was hospitalized for pneumonia and diagnosed with an E-coli infection which resulted in her blood turning septic. On August 25, surrounded by family listening to Elvis Presley sing, Betty was reunited with the love of her life; Terry. Elvis played in the background during Betty’s stay in the hospital and while battling the infections. She was serenaded the rest of her time here on earth and straight into Terry’s heavenly arms. Betty’s presence is, and will continue to be, deeply missed. Her loved ones find comfort in knowing Betty and Terry are together again; this time for eternity. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Betty’s name to Eastern Oklahoma County Resource Center at eocrc.org.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 5, at Grace Episcopal Church, Chadron, NE at 10:00am.