Betty Ogle

Betty Lou Ogle passed away on Monday, January 1, 2024, in Saint Vincent’s Hospice Care in Jacksonville, FL. Born in Gatlinburg, Sevier County, TN on March 14, 1933, she was the daughter of Willard Lee Ogle and Laura Jane Clark Ogle. She was a 1955 graduate of Carson Newman College in Jefferson City, TN, where she received her teaching license. She began her teaching career with first graders at Wearwood Elementary School, Sevier County, TN, in the fall of 1955. After one year, she moved to Pittman Center Elementary School. After reporting for an early morning bus duty on a snowy day during the winter of 1958-1959, her school was let out due to the weather. After all the students had left school, Betty had great difficulty returning to her home in the severe inclement weather conditions. She lived close, but because she lived up a curvy, steep hill, she had to travel an alternative route home over a greater distance, with her car going into a ditch, forcing her to walk the rest of the way home.

After this experience, she was determined to seek employment in a warmer climate. At the end of school in 1959, she left for Jacksonville, FL, where she continued to teach first graders at Hyde Park Elementary School in Duval County for 25 years. She was a snowbird, spending her summers in Gatlinburg at the Clark homeplace. She continued to do that until her declining health prevented the long trip.

A memorial service was held at Cedar Hills Baptist Church of Jacksonville where she was a longtime member and was very loved by her church family. She is interred in the Shiloh Cemetery, Pigeon Forge, Sevier County, TN, in the family burial plot. Known lovingly as Miss Betty, she will be missed by family and friends.

Arrangements by HARDAGE-GIDDENS HOLLY HILL FUNERAL HOME, 3601 Old Jennings Road, Middleburg, FL. Please post words of comfort at www.hollyhillfunerals.com.