My Aunt Betty passed away early Tuesday morning, September 2, 2009. She was 87 years young and will be missed. Most of all she will be missed by her family and many friends. There are many stories to tell, but we’ll start with some pictures.  The first row shows pictures from our wedding.  You can see the resemblance between the two sisters, Betty and Bubs, in the way they look when they laugh.*  Betty’s husband, Duke, set up a parachute, as a canopy to provide some shelter from that very cold and windy morning. The second and third rows show more recent pictures, beach scenes, Bowron and elegant ladies.  The pictures show but splinters of Betty’s life, but such is our catalogue, this is all we have to show.  Click on any picture to enlarge it.

One of my favorite memories of Betty was the “tea” party we had at her cabin shortly before Kathy Mullins’ wedding.  Betty was telling us about all the hats that ladies would wear to formal occasions.  She brought down several hats and we all sat around trying to look elegant.  We failed fabulously, as I’m pretty sure hysterical laughter is not lady-like!  Hats off to you, Betty, for that combination of elegance and laughter that you always showed us!  Well, almost always … There was the not-quite-elegant quote: “look at all the strawdaddies that grandberry picked!”  And then there was skinny-dipping one moonlit night when we noticed that there was one more beachball head in the water, then the number of women …“Duke!”

— Pooh & Mark

* The black and white pictures were taken by Peter Chase, one of the groomsmen in our wedding. The picture of Duke was taken by Chris Axe.