Betty Pewitt

Betty Louise Hightower Pewitt passed away peacefully on September 8, 2024, at age 93. The daughter of Wilson Price Hightower and Louise White Hightower, she was raised in Homewood, Alabama. She attended Edgewood Elementary School and Phillips High School in Birmingham, later graduating with honors from what was then known as Ward-Belmont Junior College in Nashville, Tennessee. She completed a Batchelor’s degree with honors in English at Birmingham-Southern College. She was a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Betty enjoyed an interesting and varied life with her husband, James Dudley Pewitt, who spent twenty-two years as a career officer in the United States Air Force. Betty and Dudley traveled widely during his time in the service, living in such places as Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; Dayton, Ohio; Okinawa, Japan; San Bernadino, California; and Washington, D.C.

After Dudley retired from the service he joined the University of Alabama Birmingham, and Betty moved the family home to Birmingham. Betty was active in many civic organizations in Birmingham. She served as President and a long-time-member of the Board of Birmingham Children’s Theatre, President of the Friends of the Emmet O’Neal Library, Chairman of the Birmingham Arts Commission, Chairman of the Birmingham Sister City Commission, and Jefferson County representative to the former Metropolitan Arts Council. She also was a member of the Leadership Birmingham Class of 1986, making her and Dudley one of the first married couples to complete that program. She was a member of The Canterbury Club, La Lumiere Literary Club, the Alabama Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi, and the Ladies Golf Association of the Country Club of Birmingham, at one point serving as its Chairman. She was a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church.

Betty took great joy in her writing. With life-long friend and co-author Jean Pierce, Betty wrote several plays for young people, one of which was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They authored a radio drama for public radio that was awarded a Bronze Medal at the New York International Radio Festival, and they were invited to be panelists at the American Theatre Association’s National Conference in Syracuse, New York.

Betty was predeceased by Dudley, her husband of 65 years, and by Wilson Price Hightower, Jr., her brother. She is survived by her sister-in-law, Anne House Hightower; three sons, Ransom Dudley Pewitt, James Price Pewitt, Sr. (Angela), and Thomas Edward Pewitt; nine grandchildren, Katheryn Pewitt Austin (LaMonte), Sarah Pewitt Boyle (Kevin), Alison Pewitt Kuhn (Jamie), Ransom Dudley Pewitt, Jr., James Price Pewitt, Jr., Joseph Dudley Pewitt, Louise Pewitt Hochstetler (Jake), Margaret Pewitt Gregory (Ethan), and Edward Price Pewitt; eight great grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. Among her papers at her death was found a note, in her own hand, that reads as follows: “FIRST OF ALL ⁓ I would like to remind you that I have been blessed with an interesting & rewarding life. I have been most blessed by my wonderful family – my three sons, their wives and children. I love you all.”

A funeral service will be held in the chapel at Canterbury United Methodist Church on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. The family will receive visitors before the service in the church parlor, beginning at 1:30 p.m.