Betty Harden McBryde

She lived in 23 cities throughout her life, several of them twice, and one of them, Houston, three different times. Both her father and her husband were in the oil business, and moves were commonplace. One of those moves brought her family to Premont, Texas, where she met her husband, Oliver. She played the saxophone in high school and won a full music scholarship to McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She transferred to the University of Oklahoma after a year and worked towards a degree in early childhood education. At OU, she pledged to the Alpha Delta Pi sorority and participated in events with them until the last few months of her life. She left college to marry Oliver before finishing her degree but had a thirst for knowledge and sought educational opportunities nearly everywhere she lived. At one point she became a licensed real estate agent, and another time a certified prosthesis fitter.

Betty always had a deep interest in people and their stories. She seemed to have a connection with almost everyone she met, be it a common friend, a place where they’d lived or traveled, or even an ancestor, and she loved to find those connections. This interest in people’s stories led to an active participation in historic preservation in Tulsa, San Antonio, and Yoakum where she successfully worked to preserve the old powerplant and convert it into a library. She obtained registration on the National Register of Historic Places for this building and for a nineteenth century log house near town.

She and Oliver traveled extensively, including one around the world trip. They traveled with People to People and Elderhostel, including three weeks at Oxford University in England. Highlights of their trips included sleeping in a treehouse and a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti Plains in Africa and walking on the Great Wall of China.

Betty loved children and encouraged their education. She enriched the lives of both of her sons and her grandchildren with learning activities, trips, and unconditional support. Everywhere she lived, she was active in the Presbyterian church, serving as a Sunday school teacher several times and as the first President of Deaconesses at the First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband of 72 years, Oliver C. McBryde Jr., who passed away on December 22, 2022, and by her parents Herschel Valandingham “H.V.” Harden and Chlotiele Margaret Soliday Harden, and by her brother Blair Jordan Harden.

Betty is survived by sisters-in-law Bonnie McBryde and Bonita Harden, sons John Charles McBryde and James Mark McBryde, and their respective wives Marla Peterson McBryde and Barbara Eastwood McBryde. She is also survived by grandchildren Michael John McBryde (wife Tiffany Long), Patrick Marvin McBryde (wife Erika Deal), Christina Ann “Chrissie” Ozuna (husband Brandon Ozuna), and Lynn Elizabeth McBryde, as well as great-grandchildren Amelia Bea McBryde, Theodore Frederick Rawls McBryde-Long, and Oliver Truman Ozuna.

Services will be on Friday, February 3rd with visitation at 1:00 pm, funeral at 2:00 pm, and burial to follow. All will be at Sunset Memorial Park and Funeral Home, 1701 Austin Highway, San Antonio, Texas 78218.