Elizabeth Anne Shoaff
Feb. 9, 1937-March 14, 2018
Portland, Oregon

BettyAnne Shoaff passed away peacefully on March 14, 2018. BettyAnne was born on February 9, 1937 to Anne L. Doyle Forbes and Walter Dunbar Forbes, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Growing up she lived with her parents and younger sister and brother, Joan Doyle Jacobson and Robert Forbes, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, Colorado and Arizona. BettyAnne studied at Arizona State University where she met her husband, Richard W. Shoaff. She and Richard resided in Phoenix until 1969 when they relocated to Palo Alto where they raised their four children. BettyAnne taught Montessori school part time while the children were young and later worked for 19 years as a research and administrative assistant in the Child Psychiatry Department at Children’s Hospital Stanford.

She was a talented actress and was active in community theater in Palo Alto. She was also an accomplished seamstress, an avid reader, enjoyed playing guitar and gourmet cooking. After retirement from Stanford she and her husband moved to Oregon where they were owners/innkeepers of Brightridge Farm Bed and Breakfast in McMinnville for about 10 years. In 2003, BettyAnne and Richard moved to Portland where they became involved in the Daoist Tai Chi Society. BettyAnne was a volunteer Tai Chi instructor at the Hollywood Senior Center and at a few retirement communities throughout the city.

BettyAnne is survived by her husband Richard, her children, Jeanne Shoaff (Charlie Ferrie), Stephen Shoaff (Denise Reid-Shoaff), Nancy Curtice (Ric Curtice) and Kate Shoaff (Jeff Fellows), seven grandchildren and three great granddaughters. We will miss her beautiful smile, her enthusiasm for helping others and her seemingly never ending desire to take on new and creative challenges whenever the occasion arose.