Betty Ruth Allen

Betty Ruth Rupley was born in Fort Worth Texas July 23, 1920 to Ralph Campbell Rupley (age 28) and Mildred Ellen Seele (age 22). Ralph was just home from World War I (Betty was likely a result of that joyous return). Ralph landed a job with his brother-in-law in Fort Worth, selling ladies apparel. Ralph moved the family to Crawford Street in Houston in 1923 in order to open his own fur store (with only five fur coats)! Betty grew up there across Crawford street from James Bates Allen, whom she carried on her tricycle at age 3 (he was the cute 4 year old).

The Allens then moved to La Branch street in Houston in 1926 and by serendipity the Rupleys also moved four months later - again, right across the street. Somewhere about then Betty knew Jim must be the boy for her.

The Rupleys enjoyed summer outings accompanying the Allens to the Allen beach house on the bluff above Trinity Bay. At the bottom of a long trail down the bluff, there was a long pier, shared with the other local houses. Jim had a 12' sailboat there. Betty and Jim and their friends would enjoy sailing on the bays in Jim’s 12 foot sailboat. Betty spent many happy weekends visiting the Allens at this beach house.

Betty also frequently visited her Seele relatives in San Antonio and New Braunfels.Ralph Rupley had a fur truck for deliveries, and added a mattress in the back for the children to sleep and play on while they drove to San Antonio to visit Grandmother and Granddad Seele and Daddy Grand (Fritz Seele) and cousins Elaine, Claudia and Eve. These visits were very happy times.

Jim and Betty would date occasionally. Jim would borrow his father’s car and take his Betsy out to the end of Main Street for a root beer float. As time passed, Betty would discreetly watch Jim from her window and would cry and lament when she saw him flirt with or date other girls.

Betty was an excellent student and won an essay contest while at San Jacinto High school. She had some notable classmates, including Walter Cronkite and A.J. Foyt, but she stayed committed to her Jim. She graduated high school in 1938 and enrolled in Rice Institute which she attended tuition free while living at home. She majored in Spanish and English and. took Rice field trips to climb pyramids in Mexico. After graduation in 1942, she went to work in the office for her father at Ralph Rupley Furs on Main Street.

When Jim was hospitalized and in a coma toward the end of his Army artillery service in World War II, his “Betsy” would faithfully sit at his bedside awaiting his recovery. Jim did recover and received his honorable discharge. He then re-enrolled at Rice Institute and graduated on October 30, 1044 in an express cohort - during which he proposed to his darling Betsy, the love of his life.

Betty was a beautiful bride when they married on October 24, 1944 in her parents’ home. Betty gave Jim his Rice ring as a graduation and wedding present. He always wore it on his left hand.

Their first night of marriage was spent at the Warwick Hotel. Jim arranged it so they snuck up the service elevator to their room so they would avoid their friends and pranksters. The happy couple then continued their honeymoon at the Galvez Hotel on Galveston Island.

Jim and Betty remained married until Jim’s passing 67 years later. They were reunited for eternity this past Friday, January 13, 2017 after a short, but long, separation of 4 years and 5 months.

Their first home of married life was in Freeport as Jim landed a job with Stauffer Chemical and they had their first child there in 1947, a beautiful baby girl they named Mildred Janet after Betty’s mother and Jim’s sister. They enjoyed crabbing, the beach, visiting with Jim’s sister Janet and her husband Rodney Schmidt (who was also Jim’s boss) as well as tooling around in their Model A Ford. As a new mom, Betty was a founder of the Christian Science church in Freeport and a founding member and first full-term president of the Wednesday Review Club.

Jim was transferred to Houston in 1950 where they lived with Betty’s parents on what is now Lakeside Country Club, then known as Pine Lake Farm (which was then 12 miles outside Houston). Shortly after they moved to Glowery Street in Spring Branch and they brought their second child home there in 1954, a bratty little boy named John Robert.

In 1956 Jim was transferred to Mobile AL where they initially lived in a small rent house on Crenshaw Street. By luck, their neighbor was a friendly, wonderful Cajun lady from New Orleans, Margo Gilpin - who was the soloist at Betty’s Christian Science church in Mobile and who subsequently functioned as the “Mobile Grandmother” to her young children since Betty’s and Jim’s parents were 500 miles away in Houston.

In 1959 the family moved across Mobile Bay to a brick home on a large heavily treed lot on Patrician Drive in Spanish Fort Estates. The following years were some of the happiest of Betty and Jim’s marriage. Jim would leave for work at 5:30am with a brown bag sandwich and sometimes would be gone for days supervising the loading and unloading of sulphuric acid onto barges and tank cars . Betty ran the house and would get the kids off to school and spend the day with housework until they came home, after which she would take Millie across the causeway for piano lessons. She

always had dinner on the table at 5:30 when Jim would usually arrive home from work. Wednesday nights and Sundays were always for church. Formal Sunday dinners were served after church with the china and silver in the dining room.

Betty enjoyed the dynamics of her young family and the beauty of her camellias, azaleas and dogwood trees. She and Jim learned to make fig and strawberry preserves and would save them in their Mason jars like a fine vintage wine. Every summer the family would drive back to Houston to see their kin. Money was tight but the living was easy. The family crabbed, went to the beach and raked leaves. A lot of leaves. Betty was always singing.

In 1960 Betty’s mom suddenly passed away and the family flew back from Mobile for the funeral. In 1961 Betty’s father remarried to Blanche Goodere. Betty easily and graciously welcomed Blanche and her daughter Sue into the Rupley family.

In 1965 the couple proudly watched their daughter (now “Millie”) graduate as the valedictorian of Fairhope High School and then packed her off to attend Rice

University. Shortly after Jim was offered the chance to manage the same Stauffer Chemical plant in Freeport where he had begun his career 20 years before. He took it both as a promotion, as a chance to move back to their beloved Texas and in order to be closer to their aging parents. The couple moved into and furnished a new house in Lake Forest Estates at 102 Hyacinth Street in Lake Jackson. There they raised their teenage son and became close friends with Lee and Randy Griffin, Cynthia and Bob Baughman, Larry and Helen Packard and Rae and Jack Zylks. Betty was always singing. In April 1967 Betty lost her dad. This was a particularly tough period for her. Afterwards she continued to love and remain very supportive of Blanche. Betty’s in-laws Bates Allen and Lucy Allen passed on in 1969 and 1974, respectively.

Jim and Betty happily gave their daughterMillie in marriage to Tom Clarke in August 1969 and wished them well as they graduated from Rice and headed west to California and CalTech.

John graduated from Brazoswood in 1972 and broke all family tradition by heading off to Texas A&M. At the Rotary Shrimp Boil auction that summer Betty nervously bought an old beat up and acid-eaten up Datsun pickup from the Dow plant for $400 of her own money. Good thing too - since there was no oil in the crankcase and no water in the radiator; Jim was not impressed. She gave the truck to John so he would have some wheels.

Through Rotary they also sponsored a Filipino exchange student, Maricel Bael who attended Brazoswood in 1975-76. Jim and Betty later traveled to the Philippines - twice - and became quite close with the entire Bael family.

In 1976 Betty and Jim saw John graduate from Texas A&M and marry Leah Shoemaker. They gave the happy couple a BBQ after the wedding reception and also their used Dodge Coronet. John and Leah then headed off to California with John enrolling at Stanford.

Betty was very active in her local Christian Science church and its Reading Room. She faithfully attended and served in many capacities including Reader. She led the move of the church from Freeport to Lake jackson and sadly years later oversaw its closure.

She was also an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Betty’s ancestors fought at San Jacinto against Santa Anna and in the northeast against King George.

Betty and Jim made many friends through their participation in local and international Rotary Club activities. One of those friends talked them into moving “out around the lake” so in 1992 they sold Hyacinth Street and bought 60 Snapdragon Court in Lake Jackson.

During this period Jim and Betty traveled widely - all over North America, to the Philippines, Great Britain and Europe. On many occasions they traveled with Rotarian friends and they also hosted large groups of international Rotarians.

Meanwhile both their children worked for IBM and were transferred back and forth across the country for their careers. Betty and Jim were always there and supportive during the births of their four grandchildren: Jeff (1978) and David (1981) Clarke and, Liz (1983) and Kim (1986) Allen.

When John and Leah finally settled in Folsom CA in 1988 and Millie and Tom in Morgan Hill CA, Jim and Betty bought a second home in Folsom in 1990 to be close to their children and grandchildren. They took great joy in seeing them and actively kept up with their lives.

Jim and Betty enjoyed the long drives back and forth to California with their beloved dachsund seated between them. Their favorite song was “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson; they would always play it to start that day’s drive.They knew their favorite hotel and restaurant proprietors across the West by their first names. Their string of dachshunds: George, Joey, Danny and Donny provided them with much extra joy. “If you want the best seat in the house, you have to move the dog.”

After Betty’s eyesight and Jim’s immobility terminated their ability to drive in 2007 they moved into Carriage Inn in Lake Jackson. There they made many dear friends among the residents and staff and were sad to see too many of them pass. Their beloved caregivers Delia, Nita, Susie, Cindy, Lisa, Meagan, Lisa, Esmerelda and Janie became family to the Allens and Clarkes.

They kept their home “out around the lake” because they enjoyed cooking and sitting on the back porch listening to the birds, watching the squirrels play in the trees and puttering in the garden. It was their “On Golden Pond”.

Betty and Jim were generous donors to many Lake Jackson community projects and other charities including Ft Bend county, Brazosport College, the planetarium, the Clarion, the historical museum, the Salvation Army and many others.

Betty was a founder and faithful member of the local Christian Science Church and a member of the Christian Science Mother Church all of her life. She attributed her long life to her faith.

She shared much love with her family and extended family. She took special joy in her garden, filled with flowers given her by family and friends. Betty lived to hear the birth and joyful noises of three great-grandchildren - Everett and Hazel Clarke and Fiona Clarke.

She was preceded in death by the love of her life, James Allen, and by her brothers Ralph and Robert Rupley. She's with them now and they are all singing. She is survived by her daughter Mildred Janet (Tom) Clarke of Incline Village, NV; son John Allen (Leah) of Folsom, CA; grandchildren: Jeffrey (Elizabeth Perez) Clarke; David (Lorraine) Clarke of Takoma Park, MD; Elizabeth Allen and Kimberly Stevenson (Xan); great grandchildren: Everett and Hazel Clarke, and Fiona Clarke; Betty’s sisters-in-law: Rae Rupley and Jacci Rupley, and many nieces and nephews and their families; and her special “daughters” Maricel Canizares and Luchie Galvez.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to the Salvation Army or the American Bible Society.