Bettye Jo Byford Johnson

Bettye Jo Johnson of McGregor died Saturday night, July 24, 2010, at the age of 81. Funeral services will be 10:00 A.M. Wednesday, July 28, 2010, at Cole Funeral Home Chapel, 1113 West Fifth Street, McGregor with Rev. David Thompson and Rev. Jon Gartman officiating. Interment will follow in McGregor Cemetery. Visitation will be 6 to 8 P.M. Tuesday at Cole Funeral Home.

Mrs. Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in Fort Worth, Texas, the daughter of the late Shirley and Annie Mary (Inmon) Byford. As a small child, she moved to McGregor where she was a 1946 graduate of McGregor High School and attended Baylor University. On November 26, 1952, she married Olen Doyle Johnson in McGregor. Bettye was employed by Phillips Petroleum Co. in McGregor as a Data Analyst in 1952. The couple moved to Brigham City, Utah where she worked as a Data Analyst at Thiokol Chemical Corp. They moved to Mountain View, CA in 1961 and to Lancaster CA in 1963 and to Sunnyvale, CA in 1965. 19 1965 they moved to Camden, AK for a few years before moving to Dallas in 1969, where she enjoyed being a homemaker and mother to her son Terry Johnson. In 1970, the family moved back to Sunnyvale, CA where she was employed as a bookkeeper for a large construction company in Menlo Park, CA. She later ordered text books for the Santa Clara School District. Her family moved to Waterloo, Belgium in 1981 for Doyle’s work and where their son Terry graduated from St. John’s international High School. They moved to San Jose, CA in 1983 where they lived until after Doyle’s retirement in 1990 at which time they returned to Texas. After living for a brief time in Waco, Bettye and Doyle returned to her home town of McGregor, Texas.

Bettye was a faithful member of College Avenue Baptist Church where she was a member of the Dorcas Class and the WMU. She also enjoyed volunteer work at Providence Hospital and Westview Manor Nursing Home.

Also preceding her in death was a sister Evelyn Pfieffer; two brothers, Burnard Byford and W.J. Byford

Survivors include her husband of fifty-seven years, Doyle Johnson; a son Terry Johnson and wife Lina; a sister, Mary Spoonts; a granddaughter, Susan Watkins; two great grandchildren Kaiyah Little and Elijah Watkins and many loving nieces and nephews as well as great nieces and nephews.

For those desiring, the family has suggested College Avenue Baptist Church, 202 S. Adams, McGregor, Texas 76657 for memorial contributions.