Bettis Josiah Hendricks Swindel

Bettis Josiah Hendricks Swindel passed away early Wednesday morning, October 1, 2025, in Montgomery, Alabama. A Graveside service will be held at 2:00 pm on Sunday, October 5, 2025 at Memory Hill Gardens. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Betty Jo was born on a cold Sunday, March 2, 1930, to John David and Bettie Stabler Hendricks. She went home to live in the Log Cabin Community in Cobb County, Georgia, where she attended the Fitzhugh Lee School. She lived in Georgia until her father took a position at the University of Alabama. In 1946, Betty Jo graduated from Tuscaloosa High School, and at the end of the summer session of 1948, she graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in accounting.

Betty Jo married George W. Swindel, Jr., in December 1950 and worked towards her CPA until the birth of her first child in 1951. She remained at home raising her four children, working occasional part-time jobs. She lived most of her adult life in Tuscaloosa before moving to Montgomery to live with her daughter in 2018.

While living in Tuscaloosa, Betty Jo was an active Tuscaloosa High School Band Parent for many years, a member in the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and a member of the University Women’s Club. She was active in First United Methodist Church of Tuscaloosa from the mid 1940’s where she enjoyed participating in women’s circles and the craft group. Many of her cherished friendships formed while participating in the Pilot Club of Tuscaloosa.

Betty Jo enjoyed traveling to new cities where her children were living and traveling with her mother and aunt. She spent numerous days working on the genealogy of the Stabler family and attended many of the Homecomings at Lower Peachtree, Alabama. She watched and cared for her grandchildren, taking care of them at her home and spending several summers with them in Montgomery.

Betty Jo was an avid reader, enjoying mysteries most of all. Puzzles kept her sharp as she was always working on a crossword puzzle, logic problems, word scrambles, or jigsaw puzzles. She passionately cheered on the University of Alabama and rarely missed a chance to watch the football, softball, and gymnastics teams compete on television.

She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Bettie, and her husband George. She is survived by a brother, John B. Hendricks (Mary); her children, George David Swindel (Paula), Steven Hendricks Swindel (Lynn), John Benjamin Swindel, and Dorothy Swindel Malaier (Michael); as well as six grandchildren, one step-grandchild, two great-grandchildren, and one step great-grandchild. She will be missed.

Special thanks to the staff and nurses at Capitol Hill Healthcare and to the Baptist Hospice team, Holly, Elizabeth, and Nate, for their loving care for several years.

Memorials can be made to First United Methodist church of Tuscaloosa or the Tuscaloosa Pilot’s Club.

A visitation will be held at Memory Chapel Funeral Home, located at 2200 Skyland Blvd East, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 35405, on October 5, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

A graveside service will follow at Memory Hill Gardens, situated at the same address, on October 5, 2025, beginning at 2:00 pm.