NEMO — Betty Butler Lane, 91, passed away Thursday, April 5, 2012, at the home of her son, Arthur.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 12, 2012, at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Lake Jackson, Texas. A second memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 14, 2012, at Grace Community Church in Glen Rose.
Elizabeth was born May 7, 1920, in San Antonio, to William Arthur Butler and Henrietta Elizabeth Swarthout Butler. She grew up in Houston attending public schools until she went to Rice University. She graduated with Distinction in June 1941 with a BA in English.
During her junior year, she met James R. Lane, Jr. at Texas A&M. They were married in April, 1942 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Jimmy was training as a Captain of Artillery with the 10th Armored Division in Georgia. In September 1944, when he went to fight in Europe, Betty stayed in Houston with her two small children. At the end of World War II, Jimmy went to work for Dow Chemical Company and they moved to Lake Jackson, Texas. After a move to Midland, Michigan, the family returned to Texas. The raised three children, Catherine Elizabeth “Beth” Lane, deceased; Dr. James R. Lane, III; and Arthur Bolton Lane.
Betty began teaching in Lake Jackson, Texas, in 1951, when her youngest, Arthur, entered kindergarten. She was hired on an emergency basis due to crowded classes and it turned into a 30 year career as a teacher and principal. She also taught in Midland, Michigan, and Spring Branch, Texas, where she was a principal for 11 years. Later she ran a pre-school in Ft. Collins, Colorado with Rosetta, her daughter-in-law.
Upon retirement, she moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado and then to Boise, Idaho. She returned to Lake Jackson in 2006 to live in the Carriage Inn. She attended St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Lake Jackson, a church she was a charter member in the 1950’s. Betty loved to travel, to do needle point and crafts, and study the Bible. Her husband, Jimmy, preceded her in death in February of 1978.
Survivors: Sons, Dr. James R. Lane and wife, Beath, of Starkville, Miss., Arthur B. Lane and wife, Rosetta, of Glen Rose; grandchildren, Rebecca Hanson, Hannah Walgren, Samuel Lane; great grandchildren, Andrew and John Hanson, Collin, Caitlin and Peyton Walgren; sister, Emily Osborn and husband, Oliver, of Lake Jackson; brother, George Butler and wife, Mary Jane, of San Angelo.
Wiley Funeral Home
Glen Rose, 254-897-2288
