Betty White
Betty Ruth Evans White was born March 7, 1930 and grew up on a farm in central Indiana. She attended Putnam County, Indiana, schools until her last two years of high school, which were spent at Frances Shrimer Junior College. She then attended Newcomb College in New Orleans before finishing her degree at Indiana University. It was there she met and married Jesse Edmund White, her husband of 65 years.
Betty raised three children before returning to school to study for her doctorate in English literature at Washington University in St. Louis. She taught in the English Department and then at the Washington University Olin School of Business for ten years. While at the Business School she earned the national Westinghouse Award for Innovation in Business Education. She finished her career as a professor at Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky.
Betty stayed active in retirement. She was working on a memoir, The Summer Kitchen, about life on the farm before the Second World War. She enjoyed opera, and served on the board of the Union Avenue Opera.
She is survived by her daughter Janet and her sons James and Douglas, her granddaughters Luci, Sarah and Elizabeth, and her great grandson Max. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be directed to Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108.
If you visit my Mother’s grave take a large bouquet of flowers, but leave just one bloom on her grave. Then walk around leaving a flower on as many graves as you can. That way, in death as she did in life, Mom can make everyone around her happier and the world a more beautiful place.
Doug. What a beautiful sentiment you expressed.
I know that your family is assembled at this time and I extend my arms toward you all in the warm embrace of friendship.
I wish I had known. I so wish I had known.
Your mother, no surprise to you, was a pillar of strength and was possessed of the most welcoming demeanor. I can see her wide smile now.
I think of both of your parents whenever I pass their former home in the west end.
Their greatest gift to me was of course the creation of their family and most specifically, the friendship of their only daughter.
I so would like to read The Summer Kitchen memoir. I have visited your mother’s childhood farm. I have slept in the bunkhouse. I will picture her there in the walnut grove with her hair and skirt blowing in the wind, her face tipped toward the sun, her wide open smile on that lovely face.
Ps I always think of your mother when writing. Total truth. I am a rule breaking expressive writer with poor syntax. I hope that she will overlook these shortcomings in this heart felt message.
May peace be with you.