On September 5th, 1933 on a little farm in the hills of eastern Tennessee, a little girl was born into a poor but hard working and loving family. She was the sixth child of ten born to Ples and Etta Clark. She grew up with her siblings working on the farm, walking to school and to church in their little Rogers Creek community. As the younger children were born it was decided that she would have to quit school to help raise the children so that her parents and older siblings could work the farm.
Her parents must have known even then that their little girl Betty Ross Clark was born to help others. She spent her entire life in service to her family, friends and anyone else who needed a hand.
She married young and she and her first husband moved to Chicago to find work. After just 5 years she would find herself divorced and a single mother to her daughter JoAnn in the big city of Chicago, Illinois. Her family tried to get her to bring her little girl and “come home”. Instead, she stayed and was introduced to the “love of her life” James Clifton Armstrong. I can remember her telling us that “JC” as he was called was kinda brash and rough around the edges, a ladies man in his “zoot suit” like he and his buddies wore. But she must have seen something else inside him because over the next seven years she bore him three sons, Tommy, Gary and Douglas.
The late sixties was no time to be in Chicago so in the summer of 68’ she and her family moved south, to Apopka, Florida where her husband JC grew up. Never really being “city folks”, Betty and her family loved the small rural setting where they finally bought a house close to Rock Springs.
From 1968 to 1976 life was rolling along as it does for most families, work, kids, school, and lots of Little League. She worked a few different jobs including a few years grading oranges at Plymouth Citrus. JoAnn graduated and got married. Tommy graduated and went to college. And then her world unraveled.
In the summer of 1975 things couldn’t have been going better. Kids were healthy and JC had just got promoted with a company truck. It started like the flu. JC wasn’t feeling well and after weeks he finally went to the doctor and was told he had walking pneumonia and to go home take his medicine and rest. A month or so later, Betty would find out that the original diagnosis was wrong. Her husband had lung cancer and now it had progressed to his brain. Her husband died in January of 1976. She was 42, widowed and still had 2 kids in school.
At only 5’ tall Betty didn’t look to imposing, but what she accomplished as a single mom was nothing short of amazing. Her part time job wasn’t enough to pay the bills. Tommy came home from college to get a job and pitch in but she soon realized she wasn’t really “qualified” for most jobs. It wasn’t until she went to work for the Orange Co. school system as a cook in the cafeteria that she found her true calling. From 1977 to the year 2000 every child that went through Apopka Middle School saw her smiling face looking back at them across the counter. To some she was known as the “lunch lady”, others called her “grandma”, but to all the friends of her three sons, she was simply “Mom”.
In 2000, at the age of 67 she retired … at least from paying jobs. She missed helping people so she “adopted” some of the elderly women that she knew who were struggling. She’d cook meals for them and take them to the doctors. And sometimes just sit and talk to them so they wouldn’t feel alone. She did this for years until age finally slowed her down.
In 2012, her kidneys finally quit and she went on dialysis. While most people would get down and depressed, she considered it like a job and actually enjoyed socializing with the workers and other patients.
This past year at 83 her body started to slowly break down. She spent most of 2017 in the hospital. But no matter where she went, hospital, rehab facility, dialysis or just the doctor’s office, everyone she ever met commented on her upbeat attitude. Always quick to smile, she never wanted people to fuss over her. Even in the end, when the nurses would ask her if she needed anything, she would say “no honey, I’m alright” only to grimace in pain the moment they left the room.
She spent her last week in Hospice, She said she was tired and had had enough of doctors and hospitals. She said her “goodbyes” to her friends and family and on Monday morning, May 22 at 7:07 am with her daughter by her side, she passed away. Earlier in the week when asked what she anticipated most about going to heaven she said “I’ll finally get to see your daddy again”. In the 41 years since his passing, she never once dated or even considered remarrying. I’m pretty sure the “love of her life” was waiting to greet her the morning that God called her home
Betty Ross Armstrong was preceded in death by Tommi Jeaine Armstrong in August 26, 1993 born to parent Tom Armstrong, Olga Matos. She is survived by her four children; JoAnn, Tommy, Gary and Douglas; and by her eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She lived her life a Baptist and was active in the church her whole life until illness wouldn’t let her attend.