Betty Irvine Congleton

Betty was born in Cabarrus County, NC on August 11, 1932, the daughter of the late Carthan Dean Irvine and Ruby Crouch Irvine of Concord, NC. She was the middle child of her family and was preceded in death by her brother, Daniel Irvine and her sister, Frances I. Freeze. She is survived by her son Tony Congleton and wife Pam and her daughter Donna C. Reed; five grandchildren of whom she was immensely proud: Aubrey C. Starr and husband Seth, Brandon S. Reed and wife Casey, Matthew J. Reed, Tyler G. Reed and wife Sarah, and Jimmy A. Congleton. She dearly loved her six great-grandchildren: Caleb, Aiden, Lily and Beckham Reed and Lucas and Lorelai Starr. She is also survived by two nephews, John and Maurice Freeze and their families.

Betty graduated from Concord High School and began attending nursing school at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, NC. It wasn’t long, however, before she met the love of her life, A.B. Congleton, married him and moved to Jacksonville, FL where A.B. was serving in the US Navy. They later relocated to Raleigh, NC where Betty worked in accounting with FCX and Sherwin Williams before joining Howard, Merrell and Partners Advertising, Inc as their Financial Services Manager. As the agency grew, she built a successful career with them and developed many close, lasting friendships. Betty was a long time member of Hudson Memorial Presbyterian Church where she was a member of the Adult Sunday School class and was instrumental in organizing and maintaining the Senior Fellowship Ministry.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at 2:00 pm Sunday, November 21 at Hudson Memorial Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends immediately following the service.

The family would like to thank Dr. John Lue and the medical team of Universal Healthcare of Raleigh, Dr. Dan Vig and the medical team of NC Surgery of Raleigh; and the staff at Hillcrest Raleigh at Crabtree Valley and The Oaks at Whitaker Glen - Mayview for their loving care of Betty during the last years and months of her life. In addition, they offer a special thanks to Betty’s dear friends, Shirley Blanks and Margaret Godwin for their weekly visits, Irvin Minor for his daily texts, neighbors Norm and Regina Higgenbotham and Grady and Linda Perryman for their neighborly love and care of her and their invaluable support to Donna plus so many others for their love and prayers.

Betty was an extremely strong woman who, despite her own health issues, lovingly cared for A.B. throughout his declining health and subsequent death in 2017. Anyone who ever met Betty knew that she valued her family above all else. The constant and unconditional love that she showed for A.B., her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren was evident in everything that she said and did. A piece of her will live on in each one of them.

In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial contributions be made in Betty’s memory to: The Hudson Memorial Presbyterian Church Foundation, 4921 Six Forks Rd. Raleigh, NC 27609.