Wilma Betts, 91, died in Washington Sept. 5

Wilma Jordan Betts, 91, passed away from natural causes in Mt. Vernon, Wash. Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2007.

Graveside services were held 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14. Following her request, Wilma was interred in the Jordan burial plot at Deep Creek Free Will Baptist Church at Herndon.

The youngest of eight siblings, Wilma was born at Midville in Burke County on April 7, 1916 to John Allen Jordan and Amelia Margaret Drake. She grew up at the small settlement known as "Bunntown," located between Midville and Herndon. At the age of 15, following the death of her mother, Wilma moved first to Savannah and then to Providence, R.I. where she lived with an older sister while completing high school.

Wilma entered nursing school at Providence in 1936 and worked as a registered nurse at Providence Hospital from 1939 to 1940. She was recruited by American Airlines in 1940, to become one of the first transcontinental airline stewardesses in the United States, flying out of Chicago and Dallas.

In Dallas, she met her future husband, Elliott R. Betts. Wilma and Elliott were married in Dallas on Jan. 17, 1942. In 1952, Wilma and Elliott moved to San Mateo, Calif., where they lived together until 2000, raising two sons and a daughter.

Following Elliott's death in 2000, Wilma moved to Mt. Vernon to live with her son, Jim, and to be closer to her other children in Washington and Idaho.

In 2005, Wilma moved into Birchview Memory Care Center, near Mt. Vernon, were she passed her final two years among caring staff and with frequent visits from her children.

In her later years, Wilma enjoyed gardening, sewing and traveling to as far away as Idaho and Alaska to visit children and grandchildren. She made several trips back to Georgia over the years, the most recent of which was with her son, Robert, in 2002.

All of Wilma's siblings preceded her in death.

Survivors include her children, James Jordan Betts and Margaret Drake Betts, both of Mt. Vernon and Robert Curtis Betts and his wife, Martha Frances Case, of Sandpoint, Idaho; a grandson, David Thomas Betts; a granddaughter, Allison Frances Betts; and a first cousin, Bonnie Drake Wampler of Herndon.