Our hearts are filled with joyous memories:
The family of Larson Edwin “Ham” and Betty Jo Hamberlin mourn the loss of their mother and father—Betty passed on November 29, 2024 and Larson passed on January 17, 2025—but the family still share in the joy and love their lives brought to all who knew them.
Larson Edwin Hamberlin was born to Scyril “Tex” and Sybil Hamberlin in Gilbert, Texas on January 6, 1938. Over a thousand miles away in New Sweden, Idaho, Betty Jo Carlson was born December 11, 1940 to Monte and Maurine Carlson.
The couple’s meeting is one of the family’s most cherished stories, when Larson was pheasant hunting and accidentally shot the farmhouse that was Betty’s childhood home.
Larson served in the United State’s Air Force as an aircraft mechanic from 1956 to 1960. Afterwards he shared his stories of flying in small aircrafts next to large artillery missiles while oceans passed underneath him to his wide-eyed grandchildren.
The two married April 15, 1961 in the Idaho Falls Presbyterian Church and have been inseparable since.
Betty enjoyed spending her spare time first as a Job’s Daughters Honored Queen and later participating with Eastern Stars and the Masonic family. Betty loved her work with children. For over 20 years she worked closely with students in Idaho Falls School District #91 as a Title 1 resource teacher.
Larson worked closely in the nation’s nuclear energy industry, moving the family from California back to Idaho Falls. He spent his career of 35 years with Argonne National Laboratory Idaho Facility as a quality control engineer.
The couple shared a great love for the outdoors and Island Park, Idaho. In 1972 the two built a cabin in the heart of Island Park and it quickly became the family’s cherished getaway for their children and their grandchildren. They taught the children and grandchildren how to make fires, how to build and put up structures, and how to ride dirt bikes, four-wheelers, and snowmobiles.
Larson had a love for sports, learning how to bowl from his mother, Sybil. Larson became an excellent bowler. For many years of his life he could often be found at the Bowlero, bowling, working the counter, or running down the lanes retrieving rouge pins. It was there where he earned himself several league trophies the family still display. He took up golf and was an accomplished golfer, winning many local tournaments alongside his lifelong friends and later teaching his children and grandchildren the game.
Larson carried his love of sports on as a referee for high school and college basketball and umpiring softball games. Betty could often be found knitting or sewing quilts and blankets for her grandchildren as well as the cabin for the colder months in Island Park. She collected any book she could get her hands on, and more than anything, Betty enjoyed cataloging her family’s lives in the many photo albums she’s created over her sixty-three years of marriage to Larson.
The stories of their love are too numerous to recount, but they live on in their children Stanley Hamberlin, Audrey Henrie (Mike), Mark Hamberlin (deceased), and Monica Nealis (Ryan), as well as their grandchildren Hilary Hamberlin, Samantha Loftus, Nathan Dineen, Natalie Dineen, Cody Nealis, and Courtney Nealis.
The family would like to express their deepest gratitude to Dr. Wally Baker and staff, Dr. Nathan Adams and his staff, everyone at Teton Cancer Institute, the Critical Nurse Staffing, and Solace Hospice.
The family will be spending their time together loving and remembering Larson and Betty, and in lieu of sending flowers, the family asks that those who remember the couple take more moments to spend with their own families to love each other and remember how much they matter.
Arrangements made under the direction of Buck-Murphy funeral home. Online condolences can be left at www.buck-murphy.com
