Betty was born to Ken and Nellie in 1929 and was the eldest of four children, Mary, Stanley and Anne. During the war she grew up in Yardley Wood until the family moved to Moseley in 1950, she was evacuated to Yoxall in Staffordshire but was bought home by her mother as the two sisters didn’t settle well.
After the war Betty joined the RAF as a Leading Aircraft Women and served until she was discharged on 23rd August 1955. After being discharged she joined Barclays Bank in the foreign department. During this time Betty’s passion for her ballroom dancing gained her many diploma’s and her much prized gold bars which she was immensely proud of. It was at the West End ballroom in Birmingham she met her future husband Les who she married on 19th October 1957 and remained married for over fifty years until Les passed away in 2007. Betty and Les has two sons, Len and David and after a short time living in Sparkhill, they moved to Moseley where Betty has lived for over 60 years in the house with Les. He was a builder and continually improving the house under her instruction by converting the loft into a "den" and extending the house to have an office.
Over the years the family enjoyed their holidays at various Pontin holiday camps, caravan they owned in Weston and then got involved with timeshares and enjoyed many holidays around the UK in the 80s and 90s. Betty's favourite Timeshare was The Osbourne in Torquay where she spent many a happy time enjoying the view of England's South Coast.
Betty was a valued member of her community and together with Les, helping out neighbours and friends, in fact, she cooked two extra Sunday lunches for both her elderly neighbours for years. As an active member of her local church, St Agnes, she participated in the many charitable events and activities.
Betty’s varied work life covered mainly part time jobs which included all aspects of secretarial and accounting and her experiences enabled her to be key to both her husband and son’s businesses where she did their accounts. She also held a full time position for the NHS where she worked until she retired in 1994.
In her retirement, Betty enjoyed her many visits to Scotland to visit her son Len and her grandchildren Sean and Mark and to London to visit her younger son David. As her husbands health declined, she became his full time carer until he passed away on 25th December 2007.
Betty enjoyed her memberships of her ladies clubs, her retirement groups and monthly local RAF lunch meetings. She enjoyed her holidays to the seaside, Garden centre's and Christmas shows and especially her Sunday trips to the Botanical gardens in Birmingham.
She was very proud of her garden and kept it looking pristine all of her life. She was known as "Pansy Lady" to the road for her passion for both summer and winter pansies. Her garden was always a bright spot to those who lived on the road for 60 years.
However, as Betty’s mobility slowly deteriorated as she went into to her nineties she was unable to participate as much with her social gatherings and spent more time in her home and enjoying her garden.
For the last couple of months she had to leave her much loved home and moved into full time care. She passed away unexpectedly in the Queen Elizabeth hospital on the evening of the 19th of August 2022.