Betty M. Perkins

Betty was born March 16, 1939 in Brawley, California to Elva May Ritter McCullough and Maurice Bennett McCullough. She had two older brothers, Kenneth Dale McCullough and Maurice McCullough. She was doted on by her parents and watched over by her older brothers as she grew up.

Betty had a love for music and learned to play the violin and the piano. She could also be heard singing later in life with the radio often, (when she thought no one was listening), especially in her car with her “Exile” cassette tape. She graduated from Brawley Union high school in 1957. Soon after she met a young sailor, Joe Dale Perkins, who became the love of her life, at the Waikiki Drive In, in El Centro, California. They began dating and he hitchhiked from the naval station in San Diego to Brawley just to see her. They married soon after and were married for 60 years.

Betty and Joe had two children, a daughter Pamela Jean and a son, Ronald Dale. The family moved to Texas and settled in the Houston area. Family was Betty’s life. She was the quintessential mother and grandmother. She raised not only her children but had a hand in raising all of her grandchildren. She was also a mom and grandmother to any and all of her children and grandchildren’s friends, including family friend Lynn Harrison who has considered Betty as her second Mom for over 30 years. She was always driving kids to and from school and would sometimes sew clothes for kids on the block. She didn’t like for anyone to be hungry and always had plenty to eat for anyone that came by. She was famous for her fried chicken and fried potatoes and onions, which will be missed.

Betty loved to read and learn. She could often be found wifh a book by her side while watching “Jeopardy”, “because I might learn something”, she'd say. She tried to instill this love of learning in her grandchildren, reading to them daily before school.

Betty loved cars, (especially her red 1972 Chevrolet Impala convertible), which she loved to drive fast. She often scared her kids and grandkids with her speedy ways, and she did it with a grin. She loved to travel, going back and forth to California many times and later in life took a cruise to Alaska with her daughter, Pam, family friend Becky Roberson and grand-daughter, Candace.

Betty is preceded in death by her parents, Maurice and Elva McCullough, brothers, Maurice and Kenneth McCullough, mother in law, Viola McMinn, and father in law J.D. Perkins.

She is survived by her husband Joe Dale Perkins, daughter Pamela Wilcox, son Ronald Dale Perkins and his wife Sheri Perkins, grandson, Michael A. Plummer, Sr. and his wife Misty Plummer, grandson Chris Plummer and his wife Melissa Plummer, grand-daughter Candace Wilcox and her husband Robert Wilcox, grandson Garrett Perkins and his wife Brooke Perkins, and great-grandchildren Michael Plummer, Jr., Summer Plummer, Mikayla Plummer, Madyson Plummer, Chris Plummer, Sam Wilcox, Nolan Perkins and Eli Perkins as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

Betty has touched many lives and is loved and will be missed by all of those that she touched.

Visitation will be November 30, 2017 at Brookside Funeral Home at 12:00pm with a graveside service to follow at Brookside Cemetery at 1:30pm.