Betty Jane Swallum Whittle Sheehan

Betty Jane Swallum Whittle Sheehan, passed peacefully holding her son Blaine’s hand on February 11, 2023. Services will be at Snow’s Funerals and Cremations @ Macon Memorial Park on Friday, February 24, 2023 at 2:00 P.M. with the Rev. John Kinser officiating. A visitation will be held at the funeral home on Thursday, February 23, 2023 from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Mrs. Sheehan may be made to First Presbyterian Church or the donor’s favorite charity.

Betty was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Blaine and Marjorie Maritz Swallum.

Her early years were spent in Hubbard, Iowa until 1936 when the family moved to Macon, GA. When asking her father Blaine where the family was moving he replied, “where the birds fly in the winter”.

Betty (B.J.) graduated from A. L. Miller High School for Girls in 1946 and Stephens College in Columbia, MO, class of 1948. She met her future husband, Cmdr. William (Bill) Brooks Whittle (USNA 1950) in 1936 as a child when he gave her an ice cream cone. They were married in 1950 and were stationed by the Navy at Key West where their daughter Susan Brooks was born in 1951 and then in Portsmouth, VA where their son John Blaine was born in 1954. In 1956, they moved to Macon and Bill joined the family business, Macon Memorial Park. Their son Jeffrey Bryan was born in 1961 in Macon.

After Bill died with MS in 1981 Betty and River North Pro Jim Hickman devoted 17 years to the MS Golf Tournament, raising funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Bill’s honor. A loving and enthusiastic grandmother of four and Gigi of four, she, along with Mrs. Helen Nolan, founded Father Goose International Toys (Macon) in 1986. In 2004 she married Mr. James (Jim) Holt Sheehan, an old high school friend from Macon. They lived in Ft Pierce, FL until, after surviving both Hurricanes Frances and Jean in 2004, they decided to settle inland in Macon.

Mrs. Sheehan was a member of First Presbyterian Church and sixty plus year “Golden Girl” member of the PEO Sisterhood Chapter based there. She also served on the fundraising committee of First Presbyterian Day School. She was known for her hospitality, her contagious laugh and gorgeous hair. She will be greatly missed by her family and many friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Mr. Whittle, a sister, Patricia (Pat) Witham, her dear cousin Phillip Swallum (Joyce Pulver Swallum Witham) and Mr. Sheehan.

Survivors include her three children, Susan Brooks Whittle Dantzler (w. Keitt) (Donald Williams), John Blaine Whittle (Sandra Rives) of Macon and Jeffrey Bryan Whittle (Gwendolyn) of Albany, California, Grandchildren Laurence Keitt Dantzler (Candace), William Wade Dantzler, Harrison Brooks Whittle and Madeleine Elizabeth Whittle, four great grandchildren, one stepson, James Holt Sheehan Jr. and her devoted friend and caregiver, Bernice Colbert.

Visit www.maconmp.com to express condolences.

Snow’s Funerals and Cremations @ Macon Memorial Park has charge of the arrangements.