Bettye Luvinia Turner

Bettye was born September 28, 1932 to William and Doris Rawland in Ranger, Texas and grew up in Cleburne. She was a drum major at Cleburne High School and graduated in 1950. The daughter of a newspaper publisher, she earned both her B. A. in Journalism and Master’s Degree in Journalism at the University of Texas and wrote for the Ladies’ Home Journal. She was a lifelong fan of UT football and married her loves of writing and Texas football as a sports writer for the Daily Texan and Austin American Statesman. It was through these two loves that she met her true love, Horis Otis “Hank” Turner and they were married November 26, 1954. She proudly raised their daughters, Karen and Sharon, In Austin with a few years spent in Terrell and Cleburne while continuing free-lance writing.

After the death of her husband in 1979, Bettye launched what would be a passionate 26- year career as a real estate broker and REALTOR. She was widely loved in the real estate community and won many awards. Bettye was licensed as a salesperson in 1984 and a broker in 1988. She has been at JBGoodwin, REALTORS her entire real estate career. Her professional philosophy was: “Nothing worthy of accomplishment in life comes easy. Success consists of hard work and determination, or it is not worth succeeding. I like to work hard and have fun. Believing in yourself helps solve the daily problems that are the stepping stones on the pathway to happiness and success.”

Bettye built her entire professional career on cultivating past client repeat business and past client referred business. Over 90 % of her present business continued to be from these two sources. Bettye’s entire career was one of top production. She took pride in still being able to do alot of business, even during the downturns in the economy during the 80”s and 90’s. She loved what she did and worked up to her last day.

Bettye achieved several designations: ABR-Accredited Buyer’s Representative, CRS- Certified Residential Specialist, GRI-Graduate Realtor’s Institute, SRES-Senior’s Real Estate Specialist. Also she held the CTS certification-Certified Transferee Specialist.

Bettye built a successful real estate team, The Turner Team. This team does residential sales and leasing and commercial sales and leasing. She loved real estate because she loved helping people.

Bettye was very active in her church community, first at Hyde Park Baptist church then at Austin Baptist church.

Bettye was preceded in death by her parents and brother Bill Rawland, her husband, Hank Turner and her daughter Sharon Turner. She is survived by her daughter Karen Luvinia Turner; granddaughter Shauna Luvinia Thayer; grandson Ryan Christopher Harlan; and great grandchildren Joshua Daniel Thayer, Kaylah Grace Luvinia Thayer, Christa Rose Thayer and Michael Ray Harlan , as well as her sisters Marianne Schneider and Carol Jean Knowlton and longtime business partner, Lynda Conway.

A visitation will be held Sunday, December 7, 2014 at Cook Walden Funeral Home, 6100 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX. from 6-8 pm. A funeral service will be held Monday, December 8, 2014 at Austin Baptist Church , 7016 Ribelin Ranch Rd, Austin, TX at 2:00 pm. Burial will be on Tuesday at 11:00 am in Cleburne, TX.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneral.com. Any charitable contributions may be made to Austin Baptist Church.