Lucy Crisp Batts

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church on Friday, March 13, 2020 and the family will gather with friends following the service in the Virginia Gilmer Room.

Lucy was born in Grover, NC, the daughter of the late Lucy Fellers Crisp and Sidney Allen Crisp. She was the last remaining of 9 children. She attended Gardner Webb College and graduated from Appalachian State with a degree in education. She was captain and leading scorer of the ASU women’s basketball team. After graduation, she was a career educator as teacher, principal, and girls’ basketball coach in Forsyth, Edgecombe and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. While teaching in Charlotte, she met and married the late David Franklin Batts, Jr. and started a family.

Mrs. Batts was extremely active her entire life with family and church. She was an elder at Third Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, NC, and active in Macclesfield Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church in Goldsboro and Greensboro. In Macclesfield, NC, she was named Woman of the Year in the community. She was a member of the educator’s Delta Kappa Sorority.

Her quote "life is what you make it" speaks volumes to the way she lived a remarkable life of teaching, coaching and traveling, while demonstrating a fierce independence, a selfless determination to do the right thing and a grace-filled manner of dealing with others. She loved competitive games, laughing, family, family vacations and gatherings.

Her daughter, Marjorie B. Rouse and her husband, Ray Rouse III, and son, Rev. Dr. Sidney F. Batts and his wife, Cathy A. Batts, survive her. Also surviving her are grandchildren, Cris Folmer, Julie Weitzel (Bob), Alison Pleasants (Chris), Ray Rouse, IV, Meredith Trout (Roland); Emily Rincon (Hector); 9 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Sid & Cathy Batts Residency Fund at First Presbyterian Church, 617 N. Elm St., Greensboro, NC 27401.

Online condolences may be made through www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.