Elizabeth "Betsy" Anne Lowry

Born Elizabeth Anne Kelsey in Somerville, New Jersey, on August 11, 1934, Betsy was raised from early childhood in Westwood, Mass. She graduated in 1952 along with her classmate Don Lowry from Westwood High School, where she was Head Cheerleader and Honor Student.

Having become reacquainted at their 25th high school reunion, Betsy and Don fell in love and married, a love which never faltered during 48 years of marriage.

After high school, Betsy attended Chamberlain Art School in Boston and followed a brief career in department store window design. She attended nursing school and became an LPN, then worked for several years in charge of the night shift at a nursing home in Norwood, Mass. In order to make her working hours coincide with her children’s schooling, she then became a school bus driver. She retired in 1990 from the Falmouth School Department, where she specialized in transporting handicapped and other special needs children, as well as kindergarteners. She will be long and lovingly remembered by parents and children alike for her wonderful capacity to relate to children and their needs. She would sing song after song to cognitively impaired children as she drove them to their special needs schools all over the Greater Portland area. She would always have a treat for a severely emotionally disturbed child. Betsy became a good friend and helper to many of the parents of the handicapped children. At each holiday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc., she would decorate her bus for the season and have sensational costumes which she wore on her rounds each Halloween. The last day of school in June always meant a trip to the Dairy Queen for ice cream for all the kids. A blind boy whom Betsy last drove years ago still would call every two or three months to say hello. A Down Syndrome boy who “graduated” several years before her retirement would still get excited when Betsy came to the grocery store where he worked as a bag boy. High School students often would come up to her and ask if she remembers them from when they were six years old. Parents, when they met her, often expressed their gratitude for the wonderful care which she gave to their children.

Betsy served several years as the President of the Bus Drivers and Maintenance Workers Union, a division of the Maine Teachers Association in the Falmouth School Department. Following her retirement, Betsy took up golf and watercolor painting, which led to mixed media art. As charter members of the Woodlands Club in Falmouth, Betsy participated in the hydro-aerobics program several days a week.

By a prior marriage, Betsy had six children: Shelley, Karen, Larry, the twins, Lynne and Lenny, and the baby of the family, Doug. With her six children added to Don’s four: Alix, Grey, Kristin, and Ben, Betsy had a total of ten children which has now grown to nineteen grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. She leaves all who knew and loved her many precious memories etched into the fibers of our hearts, never to be forgotten.

A Visitation will be held at Jones, Rich & Barnes Funeral Home, 199 Woodford St., Portland, ME on Friday, May 15th from 2-4 PM, followed by a Memorial Service at 4 PM. Betsy’s ashes will be buried at a later date in a ceremony at the site of her parents’ graves in the cemetery in Westwood, Mass. Anyone who would like to send flowers can send them to Jones, Rich & Barnes Funeral Home.