Betty Jane Taylor was born Oct. 7, 1919 in Seattle, to Mort and Myrl Taylor; passed away peacefully in Coupeville, on June 4, 2011.
Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Brewer in l997. She is survived by her loving sister, Dorothy Taylor Fields; nieces, Shelly (Gary) Mickelson Sharon (Dexter) Baker; a nephew, Steven J. Fields and numerous grand-neices and nephews.
She was a graduate of Franklin High Schol class of 1937 and began taking dance lessons at age 3, appearing in professional stage shows by age 12 and at age 14 she sang and danced in nightclubs across the country, led her own band called Betty and Her Beaus at age 18.
In 1956 she was hired as Slue Foot Sue for the
Walt Disney’s new theme park — Disneyland. For more than
31 years she played the spunky leader of a troupe of western dance hall girls in Disney’s popular Golden Horseshoe Revue. Betty became the darling of nearly 10 million guests, who, over the years, visited the saloon to see the world’s longest-running stage show in the history of entertainment. In the nearly 45,000 performances she appeared in, she never lost her girlish enthusiasm for playing the role of Pecos Bill’s sweetheart.
On occasion, Betty and the 10-member Revue troupe performed outside of the park. In 1968 they took their act on a USO tour of Greenland and Newfoundland and two years later performed for President Richard Nixon and his family in the White House.
Walt Disney once asked Betty to perform a variation of her Golden Horseshoe routine on national television with comedian Ed Wynn, in an episode of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.”
Betty retired from the Golden Horseshoe Revue in 1987. She continued to appear in special events, such as “Walt Disney’s Wild West,” a retrospective of Walt’s vision of the American West, which was showcased in l995 at the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles.
A service was held in Seattle on Friday, June 10.
Memorial contributions are suggested to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center or a charity of choice in Betty’s memory.
