Betty Lucille Keane

Betty Keane was born November 4, 1932 to Lester and Lois (Goman) Boylan in Laurel, Montana. She was the middle child in a family of seven sisters and one brother.

At the age of 16, Betty began her career in the restaurant industry. She worked as a waitress at the Locomotive Café in Laurel, Montana. She married at 18 and later had four children: Tom, Deborah, Sherrie, and Ricky. She divorced at 23 and remarried at 28.

Over the years, Betty lived in New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming, following the oil boom. She worked at the Pink Kitchen Restaurant in Casper for a couple of years before opening the Coffee Cup Café with her daughter Sherrie. They owned and operated it from 1976 to 1981. After selling the restaurant, she moved to Kansas and opened the Sorghum Exchange Restaurant with her daughter Debbie.

In 1984, Betty returned to Casper, Wyoming, where she ran the Paradise Valley Café. She later opened Keane’s Copper Kettle Restaurant and, three years later, the Airport Restaurant, successfully running both at the same time. Six years later, she sold the restaurants. In 1997, she helped open Sherrie’s Restaurant with her daughter Sherrie, where she worked for 25 years. Betty was well known for her homemade soups, pies, and cinnamon rolls, and she proudly passed her recipes down to her daughters. Many people remember her sitting at a table, rolling silverware day after day.

Betty loved to gamble in Riverton and was quite lucky. She once won a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, but at five feet tall, she couldn’t get on the bike. She later sold it to her son-in-law, Flint. When someone once offered her half of what she had won the bike for, she replied, “I might be old, but I am not stupid.”

She never missed her Thursday hair appointment and would get upset if she had to. Betty dearly loved her grandchildren and was known to tell them, “You better finish school, or I will put a boot up your butt.”

In addition to her restaurant work, Betty also worked in the mines in the guard shack.

She is survived by her daughters, Deborah Downing and Sherrie Lopez (Bruce Lopez); her two sisters, Jessie and Thelma; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her two sons, Ricky and Tommy; her daughter-in-law, Lori; her son-in-law, Flint Downing; and her grandsons, Joshua Lopez and Michael Downing.

A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, March 7, 2026, from 1-4pm, next door to Sherrie's Place Restaurant, 310 West Yellowstone.

To share a memory of Betty or leave a special message for the family, please visit the guestbook below.