Bette Perman has been a VtF Board member for only four years but has had a love affair with Yachats for over 40 years. Born in Minnesota, at age seven Bette & her family moved to the California Bay Area where she finished school, including her initial education to become an RN. After nursing school, Bette moved to Oregon with her dog, cat, and VW camper and began her nursing career at Multnomah Hospital which is now part of OHSU. In the years that followed Bette began visiting Yachats.
Bette’s 45-year nursing career included many years in Intensive Care nursing, and then in nursing education. After OHSU in intensive care, Bette was an ICU/CCU manager at Kaiser in Portland, ICU nurse in Seattle at Virginia Mason and Swedish Medical Centers, and nursing faculty at Portland Community College, Shoreline Community College in Seattle and at Oregon Coast Community College in Newport.
Bette met her life-mate and future wife Barbara Frye, also a nurse, in Portland. As a child, Barbara visited Yachats in summers when visiting her grandmother who lived in Eugene. Together, Bette & Barbara shared a love of Yachats and in 1995 bought a lot on E 2ND St and built a vacation house in 1998. After a 20+ year move to Seattle, Bette & Barbara decided to retire to Yachats in 2010 and added on to their house for full-time use. After almost 10 wonderful years together in Yachats and 40 wonderful years together in life, Barbara died from cancer in November of 2019.
Like so many others, Bette has been enchanted, educated, and motivated by the precious natural environment in the Yachats area. She describes that joining the Board of VtF has been an opportunity to become part of a team dedicated to the preservation and protection of our local natural resources and a tremendous opportunity to share this unspoiled area with residents and visitors and educate them in land conservation and local cultural history.
