Betty June Eslick

She's gone, yes our rock is gone. The we three will now only be my brother and me. Not that we do not have our spouses or loving friends and family to love and comfort us but it was always the we three from the very moment I can remember. Our father, Bob (Dusty) Eslick passed away in 1958 when I was 8 months old and my brother was 3. Our father was the love of her life and she never remarried. Instead she would devote herself to raising my brother and me and molding us into human beings who loved God, nature and instilled in us a work ethic and to always serve humanity.

Betty June Seymour Eslick was born in Pauls Valley-Wynnewood, Oklahoma, also known as seven shooter. She was the well-adjusted middle sibling of 7 brothers and sisters. She was born in a two room house on a 120 acre farm. Her mother (Maude Patterson Seymour) and her father (Edward Seymour) were salt of the earth people who raised their children with an incredible work ethic, love of the land and a love for sports, mainly basketball that was played on a red dirt yard with a peach basket nailed to a tree for a hoop. Their plumbing facilities were an outhouse. The stories we heard over the years about their life on the farm were epic and kept all of us laughing and all the cousins’ eyes big with wonder when we would gather for reunions in Oklahoma.

Momma definitely came from a rowdy group of siblings but she was always the one who was shyer but still assertive because as she told us many times over she always inherently felt she was an old soul and never felt childlike. Our mother was orphaned at the age of 13. Her mother had passed away when she was seven, and she had to take on many household responsibilities. Mama and her sisters would always talk about how their mother was an impeccable and clean homemaker. Even though they were poor they took pride in what they had. When her father passed away when she was 13, her three older siblings had already left the farm. The eldest to join the army in World War II and the older twins Essie and Tressie were married at very young ages. Momma tried to run the farm and watch over her two younger brothers who were ages 11 and nine for two years and still attend high school. Her youngest sister, Dorothy, had already been adopted by another aunt. What was so amazing about all of this is that their farm was surrounded by other family members who had wealthier farms and no one ever took it upon themselves to come to our mother's aide. At the age of 15, her other Family members interceded and split up the remaining siblings. Mother was sent to live with an aunt in Kansas, which interrupted her incredible basketball playing career at Wynnewood high school. Through all of this mother continued her high school education and she would eventually graduate from high school in Arkansas. Her strong suit was always math which would serve her well later for her career choice.

Our mother was raised in an Agnostic household but her family had very high morals and she told us she knew she was always loved by her parents. She said they were incredible pranksters but so loving in their words and deeds. She said that hugs from her parents were a big part of her youth and she instilled that in my brother and me, that the human touch can serve and help others.

Momma would talk about the revivals that would occasionally come to their little farming community and how she one time went down and got anointed with oil but knew something in her about it wasn't right. Moms’ job on the farm was to tend to the cows in the field and she would sometimes lay down in the field and look up at the sky and always felt something within her that she knew there was a God in heaven even though this was something that was not taught in the home.

Her older sister, one of the twins, aunt Essie married a young man by the name of Kenneth Beller who would receive his masters in theology at David Lipscomb University and he is the one ,as our mother would say, taught her the truth about God and Jesus. She was baptized by our uncle Kenneth at the age of 20. She said the hardest part was being immersed into water because she always did not feel comfortable in water or even with swimming which the irony is she loved to water walk from her 40's until she couldn't walk anymore.

Mother was married at the age of 23 to the love of her life, Bob Eslick, better known as Dusty, a nickname he received during his rodeo riding days. Their marriage would only last eight years before our father's pre-disposed genetic disease which was heart failure that took him at the age of 31.

I can't imagine the heartbreak our mother went through.

She persevered on though and knew she had two children to raise. She had worked for the telephone company (Bellsouth) before she married our father and had taken a hiatus while raising her family. After our father's death she knew she had to go back to work but soon realized she could not continue to live in Oklahoma City and and see all the places that she and my father had been together. At the age of 33 she embarked on a new and life changing journey to Nashville Tennessee. Her sister, Aunt Essie and aunt Essie's husband, uncle Kenneth were living in Nashville and prompted her to come and start a new life.

Momma gathered us up and moved us to the magical town of Nashville.

Upon arriving, she checked out the education system and knew that the Green Hills area was the place to be. At that time it was a more rural community but was also close to her work place, BellSouth in Greenhills. She bought a house in the idyllic neighborhood known as Brookmeade/Duncanwood off of Granny White Boulevard.

Here she put down her roots and started instilling in my brother and me faith in god and love for humanity. She truly was the embodiment of what Christ is about. She taught us about racial inequality, social inequality and she was accepting of other faiths. Her faith alone was in Jesus Christ and she exhibited the teachings of Christ over and over.

Our mother was not perfect but she was a pick yourself up by the bootstraps kind of a woman. She was tall in stature, her beauty was undeniable and even though she had not been raised with the privileges of life she had class that was just inherent in everything she did from the way she walked to the way she talked and carried herself and treated others. So many people over the years would say when our mother walked into the room it was though the Queen had entered. Her favorite sayings were, "no if ands, buts or maybes." Also when she couldn't find something we would hear her say, "cat hair on the cat hair" when we would ask what that meant she would say" well could you find a cat hair on the cat hair?" Enough said.

She loved pecan ice cream, snickers bars, sweet tea from the picnic and to eat at the pineapple room at Cheekwood. Frank Sinatra was her favorite singer along with Tennessee Ernie Ford. She even liked the Beatles. She loved my mother-in-law, Upinder, and and would tell me how blessed I was with a great mother-in-law like she had. She adored my stepson, Kabir and would always call him her grandson. She also adored my nieces and nephew from my husband Devinder's side of the family. To them she was grandma Betty. Momma had many more things she loved but too numerous to mention.

Her style was undeniable and she still has the most impeccable wardrobe with most of it purchased from her favorite shopping place, Coco's.

Over the years I've had many purchasing parties at my house to support my many talented friends. Mother always would show up and buy something from each one of my friends and support them.

She was an awesome baker. We will all crave her strawberry cake and aunt Bill's fudge.

She was an incredible sports enthusiast and should have had her on talk radio show. She could rival any man knowing any statistic in sports whether it be basketball, baseball or football and she learned to love soccer because of my husband's love for it and my brother had played it.

She was an awesome runner and competed in many Bonnybell races and has so many awards to show for winning in her age group.

When she retired at the age of 57, she was senior accounting supervisor for the BellSouth telephone company in Brentwood Tennessee and had eight employees in her charge. Her retirement party was phenomenal and so much love and respect was shown for her.

After retirement, she became very active in politics serving as a present registrar in practically every local and national election for more than 20 years.

Her Haven was Radnor Lake. The hours she spent out there running and walking were so peaceful to her and I would join her on many of her walks or runs. She always had a peculiar run stance with her head slightly tilted to the right which I used to tease her about and I would say "is God trying to say something in your left ear?" I'm sure he was because he knew she was listening.

Mother's health started to decline at the age of 84.

Last year my brother and I had to place her in assisted-living at Belmont Villages in Greenhills. We watched as her body deteriorated but she still had a strong will and the incredible staff at Belmont Villages marveled over her strength. Our mother left us on Tuesday night. I was holding her hand as she exhaled her last breath. My brother had been there all day but we both knew she would not depart this world until he left the room. I told my brother he had been so strong for so long it was my time to see our mother out and into the next life. She passed away 15 minutes after he left. She bore us into this world and we helped her out of this world into her new heavenly body. When she died it was a double rainbow outside, which was a sign to us that daddy was the other rainbow waiting for our Beautiful mother. Even in death she was still unbelievably beautiful. The staff and the pals of Belmont Villages took such excellent care of our mother. She has been bedridden for a year but she never had a bedsore due to their loving and capable care, also Gentiva Hospice staff have been amazing. All seven of her pals, who are from Africa, were surrounding her like protective lionesses after she passed away. They are not given very often to displays of emotions because they are so stoic but tears were streaming down their faces. They were the lion pride and they were taking care of our mother. To us this is so apropos because our mother was a Leo Born on August 22, 1927. Momma outlasted all of her other siblings because she had a fortitude that was undeniable. She was always our fierce Lioness but will forever be our beloved mother. So Momma, go rest high upon that mountain because your work on earth is done and you did it beautifully.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to Friends of Radnor Lake, 1160 Otter Creek Road – Nashville, TN 37220