Betty Jean (Guyton) Bailey

Betty Jean Guyton Bailey, 85, passed away on Monday, September 30, 2024. She was born in Lumberton, NC, daughter of the late Charles R. Guyton and Ethel Thompson Guyton. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Howard Eugene “Gene” Bailey; and her sons, Bobby Therrien and Harry Wolfe; and her siblings, Lois Musselwhite, Vera Bailey, Lucille Penrod, George Guyton, and Marvin Guyton.

Left to cherish her memory are her loving children, Cheryl Peed (Michael), Stuart Bailey (Annie), Karen King, and Crystal Bailey; her grandchildren, Cher Sheets (Shane), Jody McAfee, Charlie Stanton, Erica Salas (Andrew), Steven Bailey, Samantha Bailey, Mandi McClung, Mindy Hartley, Jennifer Burden (Robbie), Christina Wolfe, and Angela Wolfe; 30 great-grandchildren; 8 great great-grandchildren; her sister, Virginia “Boots” Watts; and a number of nieces and nephews.

Betty was a very special person. She never met a stranger and could be kind to anyone. But if you pushed her, she was no milquetoast. She was a strong and opinionated woman who didn’t mind telling you what she thought. She was an avid reader and collected multiplied volumes of paperback books. One of her favorite authors was Mary Higgins Clark. She instilled this love of reading into many of her children and grandchildren.

Betty was a musical person and always had a song in her heart. She grew up singing in church from a young age and would continue that into adulthood. She also could be found singing in square-dances and at the officers club at Fort Bragg. When she got together with her siblings, they would often sit around and sing old hymns together. She passed this love of music on to many of her children and grandchildren. She had a particular love for Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley, which she shared with several of them as well.

Betty was not just a good singer; she was a dancing queen. She loved to dance and was really good at it. The shag or the jitterbug were her go-to dances. She and Gene cleared the floor more than once, showing off and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

As many can attest, she would cut a rug in her own living room many nights and coax anyone close by out to join her.

Betty loved to make things with her hands. Over the years she took up a number of hobbies including macrame, cross-stitch, grapevine wreaths, flower arranging, fabric painting, Christmas shirts and bags, and doll making. Many years, she and Gene set up a table to sell their wares at the Mount Holly Spring Fest. Even now, her family still gathers before Thanksgiving dinner to make crafts for Christmas.

In the late 1970s, Betty took up the hobby of candy-making. From mid-November until Christmas, there was always a double-boiler on her stove filled with chocolate just waiting for her to dip peanut butter balls, almond joys, and mounds. She made butterscotch haystacks, peanut brittle, and chocolate covered cherries. A family favorite was her white chocolate cereal candy that she humorously called “white trash.” She would bag up samples of these delightful treats and share them with family, friends, schoolteachers, and her pastor. Her family carries on this tradition, and although they try to knock it out in a day or two, they still make many of the same offerings she did.

To hear her children tell it, there was no better cook on earth than Betty. She could whip up a pot of chicken and dumplings or a bowl of potato salad in no time and have everyone waiting with a dish in hand. One of her most beloved dishes was her dressing and there was no real written recipe for her children—she just measured with her heart. She made Sunday dinners and holidays special with each meal she prepared. Whether at a cook-out or an Easter dinner, there was always more than enough and a side dish of love to go along with it. Indeed, she often showed her affection by feeding you, and you never left her house without an offer to run in the kitchen and get you a bite to eat.

Betty always grew a large vegetable garden with her husband. They dedicated over half their yard at one time to this endeavor. Green beans, field peas, tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, zucchini, corn, speckled butter beans, cabbage, and collard greens took time and loving care to grow and pick every summer season. And once the picking was done, the canning began. Often the children and older grandchildren would be conscripted into the service of shelling peas and shucking corn. Hot summer nights spent sitting on the porch, shelling butter beans until you had blisters and then callouses seemed like hard work until

winter came and you had a wonderful meal laid before you of all your labors. Betty had grown up poor and learned the value of producing and preserving your own food. She even took to making and canning her own version of salsa, and it was a hit with anyone who tried it. She made jellies and jams and put up her own sweet pickle relish.

Food wasn’t the only thing in her garden. Betty loved flowers and always had a variety in her yard. You might see a giant hydrangea, a gardenia, and camellia bush. There would be rows of yellow trumpet lilies, orange and pink daylilies, impatiens, irises, gladiolas, begonias, and geraniums. Among her beautiful flowers would be old fashioned roses transplanted from Grandma Bailey’s house and spider lilies welcoming the fall from Grandma Guyton’s. Her yard was always a showpiece she was proud of.

There are so many other things to tell about Betty—about her patriotism and her generosity and her sense of humor—but it is sufficient to say she lived a full life. Oh, she knew hard times, and she was far from perfect, but she had that extra special something that made her keep moving forward even when times were tough and things didn’t go just right. She lived life to the fullest, and she left it without wasting an ounce. And the world is a better place because she was in it. A famous quote says, “Life is a banquet, and most people are starving to death,” but Betty wasn’t one of them. She ate it up and left no crumbs.

A service to celebrate this wonderful life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 4, 2024, at the Woodlawn Chapel of Woodlawn Funeral Home, Mount Holly. Burial will follow at Hillcrest Gardens Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. on Friday at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Western North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund of the Lincolnton Church of God, P.O. Box 1006, Lincolnton, NC 28093. Condolence messages may be sent to the family by visiting www.woodlawnfuneral.org. Woodlawn Funeral Home of Mount Holly is caring for Mrs. Bailey’s family.

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