Betty Jo Sorensen, mother, sister, aunt, comforter, and the brightest light in every room, died June 15, 2026, after a brutal four-month fight with bile duct cancer. She was 70 years old.
Betty Jo was born on April 7, 1956, in Boise, Idaho, the daughter of Alma Sorensen, whose construction company built some of the city’s most iconic subdivisions, and Ruth Lyons Sorensen, the organized matriarch who held it all together. She was one of twelve siblings including Kay, Paula, Karla, Merlene, Mark, Tamara, Shelley, Karen, Annette, Peter and John. Those relationships remained among the most important of her life until her last day. The family lived on Mobley Drive among neighbors who stayed close friends for the rest of her life.
Betty Jo attended Adams Elementary, East Junior High, and Boise High School, graduating in 1974. She served as a class officer, was a member of the National Honor Society, and was known for her many talents, including her beautiful singing voice. As a member of the Boise High Madrigals, she was selected during her senior year to attend the prestigious All Northwest Choral Workshop. She performed in numerous musicals and directed the production Because of Elizabeth. Teaching was one of Betty Jo's greatest joys. She was a gifted speaker who shared her knowledge throughout her church service and professional career.
Betty Jo was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was baptized at age eight, and served faithfully in many callings. She was the first in her family to serve a mission and was called to Leeds, England from June 1978 to November 1979.
She earned a Bachelor's Degree and was the first in her family to earn a Master’s Degree in Social Work, both from Brigham Young University. She became a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and spent her career as an award-winning leader at CVS/Aetna Behavioral Health. She ran one of the company’s most demanding teams, overseeing complex mental health cases all over the country.
The title everyone who knew Betty would give her, was comforter. Family, friends, and total strangers came to her to be seen, held, and told the truth with so much love it didn’t sting.
She was also, gloriously, the life of the party. Loud, infectious laugh. Playful, irreverent sense of humor. She was constantly late, she swore more than was probably appropriate, but she did not pretend to be perfect. She was unapologetically herself.
She loved the finer things in life: art, opera, ballet, classical concerts, Broadway, a genuinely funny movie, a good painting, and a good book. She stayed in the same book club for over fifteen years. She gardened with real devotion, and her lilies were her pride every single year.
The defining relationship of her life was with her daughter, Heidi Diane, born in July 1989. As a single mother, Betty Jo made every sacrifice so Heidi could travel, get an education, and have experiences most kids never get. More than that: she wanted Heidi to believe the world was a safe place, worth trusting, worth taking risks in. She built that belief in her daughter on purpose, brick by brick, and she succeeded.
For much of their lives, it was just the two of them. They built a world filled with conversations, inside jokes, adventures, and memories that belonged only to them. They talked every day, read poetry, made each other laugh, danced in the living room, and were endlessly curious about one another. They had such fun together. They were dear, dear friends.
Their relationship was built on honesty and a lifelong commitment to knowing one another deeply. Betty could be wonderfully kind and loving, and she could also be stubborn, impatient, fiery, and completely herself. Heidi loved all of it. She loved Betty exactly as she was and understood her in a way few people ever could. She was Heidi's home, the first person she wanted to call, and the one who knew every chapter of her life. In Heidi's words, "She was my North, my South, my East, my West."
She helped raise three stepsons, Aaron, Andrew, and Austin Olsen. They remember her as the architect of their most fun childhood memories: the trips, bug collecting, camping, and the old Hollywood movies they still quote. She loved being their mom so much. She cherished being a part of their families and she developed friendships with all her children’s partners, Brianna, Maureen, Michelle, and Dominik.
She loved her family and friends, and they loved her back. Her life held more than its share of suffering and grief, but she was never defined by it. The losses that shaped her young adulthood were the unexpected death of her father while she was away on her mission, and the death of her sister Karen only a year later. She knew what it meant to hold both grief and faith in the same hands.
In retirement, Betty Jo finally turned some of that boundless care toward herself. She bought her dream sports car. She traveled and cruised the world with her sisters, friends, her boys, and Heidi to Costa Rica, Poland, Jamaica, Germany, the East Coast, and all over Europe. She was, without exception, up for the adventure.
She is preceded in death by Alma Tolley Sorensen, Ruth Ellen Sorensen, Roderick Sorensen, Karen Sorensen, Mark Sorensen, Paula Sorensen, Allen Speer, Dave Turner, Clinton DeMilt, Diane Gloria Olsen, Richard Olsen, and Tyler Lundell.
She is survived by Kay Bunn (Jeff Bunn), Karla Harris (Steve Harris), Tamara Turner, Merlene Speer, Shelley Sorensen (Kim Sorensen), Annette Christensen (Karl Christensen), Peter Sorensen (Carrie Eddington), John Sorensen (Anne Sorensen), Austin Olsen (Michelle Olsen), Aaron Olsen (Brianna Olsen), Andrew Olsen (Maureen Olsen), Heidi Olsen (Dominik Oepen) and grandchildren Easton Olsen, Adelin Olsen, Daxton Olsen, Kaitlee Olsen, Makelle Olsen, Elizabeth Olsen, Rosalyn Olsen, and Nathan Olsen. She is also survived by many beloved nieces and nephews.
Services:
A viewing will be held Thursday, July 2, 2026, from 6:00–8:00 PM at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah.
A funeral service will follow Friday, July 3, 2026, at 11:00 AM at the L.D.S. 17th Ward Church, 225 W 500 N, Salt Lake City, Utah. The family asks that attendees wear colors as bright as Betty Jo was.
A celebration of life will also be honored in her hometown of Boise, Idaho. An inurnment will be held on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. at Morris Hill Cemetery (Section R). Family and friends are then invited to a Thursday, July 9th, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the L.D.S. Church at 3775 East Ustick Road, Meridian, ID 83646.
Betty Jo loved flowers, but if you can’t send flowers, call someone you love today and tell them so. That’s what she would have wanted. That’s what she always did