Bettye Sue Stone Woodhull, 1931-2012

Cousins,

Bettye Sue Stone Woodhull passed away at her home this evening.  Please say prayers for Ron and their three sons as they grieve the loss of a wife and mother.  Bettye was a dear friend.   We "met" over the internet in 2006 and very quickly became e-mail buddies.  In 2010, Mike and I were blessed to meet Bettye and husband Ron in person (and beloved dog Cricket too!) as they made an extended trip to Alabama to visit friends and family, stopping in Oxford on their way back home to Texas.

Bettye had an incredible memory.  Thanks to Bettye's amazing ability to recall even the smallest details from her childhood, I have a wonderful collection of stories and information about Bexar, Alabama in the 1930s and 1940s.  When I asked Bettye once about her gift of memory, she said that she first realized she was gifted in that way when she quoted the preacher's sermon and scripture almost word for word on the way home from a Sunday evening revival meeting in Bexar when she was about eight years old.  Her grandparents were astounded, she said.
 
In addition to sharing family connections, Bettye and I shared a love for the now extinct town of Bexar.  When I asked questions, Bettye gave me the answers and a whole lot more about the once thriving community that was home to so many of my people and hers.   Bettye was a gifted writer, putting her memories into words that helped me "see" the people and places of her youth.  I'll be forever grateful to her for making Bexar come alive once more.  Bettye's remembrances of Uncle Lucian, Granny Kate, Cousin Gertrude, Aunt Agnes and others are true treasures.

The doily pictured above was embroidered by Bettye's great-grandmother, Susan Florence "Sukey" Evans Robinson.  Sukey was the sister of my great-great grandfather, John T. Evans, and she married Henry Johnson Robinson, the younger brother of my great-great grandfather George Emerson Robinson.   Tell them all hello for me in Heaven, Bettye.