Elizabeth E. Webster

Elizabeth Elkin “Betty” Webster, born January 15, 1941, in Auburn, Alabama to Charlotte Scott and Thomas Wayne Elkin, Jr. passed away peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones in Atlanta, Georgia on January 12, 2023, just days before her 82nd birthday.

Betty spent her early years in Lancaster, Pennsylvania until her family moved to Oreland, a suburb of Philadelphia, where she graduated from Springfield Township High School in 1958. She started her college education at Bucknell University before transferring to University of Georgia where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and met her husband of almost 60 years, Bucky, who passed last summer.

Betty is remembered for her kind heart, her intellectual mind and her “joie de vivre.” She started and ended her career as a teacher. Her first teaching job was with the Upper Dublin Township school system in Pennsylvania right after graduation from UGA in 1962. She then taught French at the Ensworth School in Nashville, at the Westminster School in Atlanta, and at George Walton Academy in Monroe. She taught preschool at St. Phillips Cathedral and English as a Second Language at North Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. She was also a perpetual student, always eager to learn more with her book club, bridge groups, Northwood Garden Club, Athenaeum Club, Colonial Dames, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).

Her beloved summer home in Monteagle, Tennessee embraced all of her passions. As one of the few remaining Chautauquas, the Monteagle Assembly is a community of Christians who, according to its mission, “gather to engage in spiritual growth and renewal, lifelong inquiry and learning, recreational and cultural enrichment,” and Betty participated in as many activities there as she possibly could. Betty and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. not only share a birthday on January 15, but also a passion for learning. As MLK is quoted, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.” One can say without hesitation that Betty had a true education.

Betty is survived by her three loving children: Susan (David) Parker of Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. John (Eliza) Webster, III of Durango, Colorado and Sharon (Clark) Tate of Atlanta, Georgia, and nine grandchildren: Henry, Ellie and Annie Parker; Rush, Havens and Sunny Webster; and Albert, Emmaline and Campbell Tate, as well as her brother Tom (Norma) Elkin and two nephews, Wesley and Austin (Jessica) Elkin.

Betty was a member of North Avenue Presbyterian Church for most of her life and more recently joined Christ Church (currently meeting in the Atlanta International School, located at 2890 North Fulton Drive, Atlanta, GA 30305) where her service will be held on Sunday, February 5, 2023, at 1:00 P.M. She will be buried in the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Monteagle Sunday School Assembly https://monteaglesundayschoolassembly.org or Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Research https://lustgarten.org