Betsy Rose Stafford Burch, known to her family and friends as Becky, passed away peacefully on Friday, January 15, 2021. Born March 8, 1932 in Kernersville, N.C., Becky was the daughter of Charles Allen Stafford, Jr. and Odessa Lemar Stafford. Perhaps because she suffered the loss of her own mother when she was a very young child, Becky took special happiness in raising her family. She and her late husband, Jim, were married for 59 years and spent countless hours making memories with their five children, including driving them all across the country packed into a station wagon towing an Airstream. To this day, her children still laugh about those trips and are grateful to have had parents who made daily life such an adventure. In addition to helping Jim build successful sales and real estate businesses, for which she was the faithful bookkeeper, Becky also had a talent for gardening and spent many hours tending her beautiful roses. Becky was a woman of prayer who studied the Bible deeply; her church, Cornerstone Baptist, was very important to her. Though she endured great sorrow upon the deaths of two of her children and her husband, Becky taught her surviving family much about resilience and grace through the way she grieved so openly and honestly and yet with such a commitment to still finding and giving joy. In the latter part of her life, people often remarked on the way that Becky always stayed younger than her years. She learned to play the piano in her seventies, read widely, was a wonderful conversationalist on many diverse topics, still went camping well into her eighties, passionately cheered on her favorite sports teams, loved getting her nails done, and going out to dinner with her close circle of friends, all while fashionably carrying the perfect purse. What Becky cherished most of all, though, was spending time with her family members, who often gathered in her home and who once even surprised her with a rambunctious all-night family slumber party the day she turned 80. While we mourn the remaining years that we might have had with her, we hope she always knew how proud we were that she was ours, and the family would like to thank all of the assisted living and hospital staff members who have given so much in these recent difficult days, as well as Becky’s wonderful doctors who have cared for her so well over the years. In addition to her husband, Jim Burch, Becky was preceded in death by her son, Jimmy Burch, daughter, Lynda Burch Vasquez, and brother, Ray Stafford. She is survived by her children, Wanda Davis (Rodney), Joey Burch (Ronda), and Samuel Eric Burch (Cynthia); her daughter-in-law, Toni Burch; her brother, Richard Stafford, and sister, Shirley Harpe; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the Cornerstone Baptist Church Building Fund at 8947 Albemarle Road, Charlotte, NC 28227. A private graveside service for family will be held.
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