Services will be Thursday, March 16th at 11am at Heritage Chapel Funeral Home with visitation from 9:30-11am before the service. The Rev. Larry Corder will officiate. Interment will follow at Tuscaloosa Memorial Park.
Betty was preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, Eugene (Gene) Terry; father, William Claude Ryan; mother, Jennie Bell Ryan; brothers, Curtis Ryan and Donald Ryan; and sister, Gaynell Colvin.
Survivors include a daughter, Yvonne Terry Betowt; a son, Steve Terry (Nancy); granddaughters, Courtney Jeffreys (Cole); Hannah Costanzo (Ryan); and Lesley Davis (Cory); great-grandchildren, Chandler and Peyton Davis; Sutton and Smith Costanzo; and Savannah Jeffreys; her sister, Lois Lawrence and brother, David Ryan; and her sister-in-law Betty Joyce (Leon) Tucker.
Betty (BeBe), was born on March 5, 1931. She graduated from Holt High School in 1949. She attended Holt Baptist Church for more than eight decades where she sang in the choir and held numerous leadership positions in the church’s mission programs.
On Jan. 14, 1953, she married Gene following his discharge from the Navy. They first raised their family in the Five Points area of Tuscaloosa and later moved to a home they built off Crescent Ridge Road near Holt in 1965. It was destroyed in the 2011 tornado, so she and Gene moved to Taylorville where they later joined Taylorville Baptist Church.
After living in Taylorville a few years, health issues forced Betty to move to Forest Manor Nursing Home in Northport where she lived for six years before her death.
Betty was very active in her children’s and grandchildren’s lives. She attended as many sporting or extracurricular activities as possible involving all of them. She loved to watch Alabama football and Atlanta Braves baseball games.
She worked for long-time Tuscaloosa dentist, Dr. William M. Abernathy, for 30 years, first as an assistant and later as a receptionist.
Pallbearers will be nephews Barry Lawrence, Mark Lawrence, Scott Ryan, Tommy Covin, Dave Ryan, Al Kizziah, Ken Kizziah and Phillip Madison; and great-nephew Ryan Colvin.
Honorary pallbearers are Barbara (Babs) Alawine, Paul Gartman, Bob and Ailene Hubbard, Barbara Kyzer, Patsy Lawrence, Belinda and Lee Boozer, Lydia Riley, Nancy Sellers, Nell Vice, Debbie Mitchell, Mary Ann Perrigin, Ray Glenn, Dr. William Colburn and staff; the Forest Manor staff, and members of Taylorville Baptist Church’s Helping Hands Ministry.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Taylorville Baptist Church’s Helping Hands Ministry or Hospice of West Alabama.
