Mary Betts

Mary Baxter Betts, better know as Pidgy Betts, died at her home, 1105 Fort Hayes Drive, on Sunday, May 9 after a brief illness with lung cancer. She was born on January 17, 1924 to the late Morrice Linwood and Margaret Williams Baxter. She was a graduate of Petersburg High School and Madison College, now James Madison University. She did post graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and The College of William and Mary. Her teaching career began in Dinwiddie County, however, nearly all of her career was with the Petersburg Public School system from which she retired in 1986. She is survived by her husband of forty-eight years, Edwin M. Betts, Jr; her daughter, Mary “Bee” Betts; her son, E. Morris Betts, III; a grandson, Zachary Wilson Reeves; a sister, Jean Baxter Spivey; husband Robert, all of Petersburg; and a sister-in-law, Betsy B. Lang, husband Hunter, from Cedar Key, Florida, and Charlottesville. She was pre-deceased by another sister, Margaret Baxter Harrison Hartsel. Funeral services will be held 3:00 pm, Wednesday, May 12th at Christ and Grace Episcopal Church. Memorials may be given to Southside Virginia Emergency Crew, Crater Community Hospice, American Cancer Society, Christ and Grace Episcopal Church or The Rotary Foundation. Addresses may be secured from J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home, Petersburg.