Betty was born in Auckland, New Zealand to Dorothy Brown Smith and Reginald Hardy Smith. While in her early teens, she moved with her family to Adelaide in South Australia. The family moved several more times around Australia for Mr. Smith’s position as a manager with the Bank of New South Wales. After finishing school in Sydney, she began working for Lieutenant General Sir Iven Mackay as his personal secretary when he was headmaster of Cranbrook School. When war broke out and Sir Iven was called back to active duty, Betty returned with her family to New Zealand. She began working for the Bank of New South Wales, a job she would never have been offered as a woman had it not been wartime with so many young men leaving to fight.
When America entered the war, she was excited to get a job with the American Joint Purchasing Board of the U.S. Navy. During that time she met Lt. Earle G. Caldwell of Atlanta, an officer on the U.S.S. Delphinus. Betty and Earle were married on October 14, 1944 in Auckland. Eleven months later, Betty headed for her new home in the United States while Earle remained in New Zealand waiting for his relief after the war had ended. She traveled aboard a ship full of other “war brides,” spending her first wedding anniversary at sea, and crossed the Pacific Ocean, the Panama Canal, and the Gulf of Mexico before arriving in New Orleans. From there she traveled to Atlanta by train and lived with her new in-laws, Emory and Ruth Caldwell, until Earle was finally free to join her. Betty and Earle remained in Atlanta and happily married for 59 years until Earle’s death in 2003.
Betty grew up participating in many sports at her various schools and especially loved tennis, golf, swimming, sailing, and horseback riding. In the tennis craze of the 1970’s she got several women in Atlanta started in tennis by teaching them the basics of the game.
Continuing her love of the outdoors, Betty was an avid gardener all her life and grew beautiful flowers year round. Azaleas, gardenias, camellias, roses, hydrangeas and many others filled Betty and Earle’s property on Niskey Lake, with extensive beds of her collections of iris and daylilies among her favorites.
Betty was also a talented artist. She learned to paint during her years in Australia and New Zealand, capturing the native beauty in watercolor landscapes. Later, in Atlanta, she took lessons in acrylic and oils, hosted weekly lessons in her home, and was a prolific artist of landscapes and still life.
Bridge was another passion. Betty played regularly in her Niskey Lake bridge club for years. It was one of her favorite social activities and she adored her seeing her neighbors and friends every other Wednesday.
Betty and Earle traveled around the world together, enjoying several trips to Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and the Caribbean, and vacationed in almost every state in the union.
Betty is survived by her sister, Sheila Webb of Auckland, New Zealand; son and daughter-in-law, Brian and Melanie Caldwell; grandchildren Adrienne Caldwell Chitnis, Heather Caldwell Cameron, Brian Alan Caldwell, Jr., Laura Caldwell Yurick, 9 great-grandchildren; daughter and son-in-law, Pam and Jack Walz, grandchildren Elizabeth Walz and Jack Walz III. A service was held Friday, October 17, 2014 at 11 o'clock at the Cathedral of St. Philip, with interment at Westview Cemetery. Online condolences may be made at hmpattersonspringhill.com
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