Funeral services will be directed by Ridout’s Trussville, with burial in Forest Hill Cemetery of Birmingham. Funeral will be held at Ridout’s Trussville Chapel on Friday, November 22. Family will receive visitors starting at 1:00 prior to the service at 2:00. Dr. Doug Dortch of Mountain Brook Baptist Church will officiate. Burial will be private.
Betty Durham Bryant’s life has been cherished by her five children, seven grandchildren , and five great-grandchildren. She was the descendant of pioneers in the Sand Mountain region of Alabama. She was born in Chavies, near Rainsville, January 28, 1921. After moving to Jefferson County, she attended Colley School, and she graduated from West Jefferson High School in 1939. She attended Auburn University. Under influence of the Baptist Student Union, she was baptized and joined First Baptist Church of Auburn.
May 17, 1941, she married Leonard Powhatan Bryant of Birmingham (who died in 1975). Their children are Catherine (who married Lee Norcross Allen and they live in Birmingham); Leonard Jr. “Len” of Birmingham (who married Susan Sawyer Bryant, now deceased); Johnny Paul of Liberty Hill TX; Alice of Los Angeles, CA (married to James “Jim” Lenahan); and Mark Perry of Birmingham (married to Ruth Ann Archer Bryant). She enjoyed her grandchildren: Leland Norcross Allen III of Birmingham (and wife Traci); Leslie Catherine Allen of Nashville TN; Adam Bryant of Austin TX (and wife Meredith); the late Ben Bryant of Lubbock TX; Sean Lenahan of Los Angeles (and fiancé Charlotte); Ian Lenahan of Los Angeles (and wife Evelyn); and Lindsy Bryant of Birmingham. There are five great-grandchildren who visited her devotedly.
After her children were grown, she was employed by the Social Security Administration, working as a supervisor for 23 years. In retirement she was coordinator of volunteers at the national headquarters of Woman’s Missionary Union, Auxiliary to Southern Baptist Convention. She was a local organizer for the Sweater Project of Guideposts magazine.
She invested much devotion to caring for her mother, Martha Perry Durham Watts, who died at age 96. She cared for her aunt, Ida Belle Perry Bentley, who lived until age 104. She helped to care for her grandparents, Charlcie Dowdy Perry and William Thomas Perry, who lived to ages 84 and 92 respectively. She even helped to care for her great-grandmother, Mary Frances Elizabeth Machen Dowdy, who lived to age 90. She cared for her brother, Billy Joe Durham, until his early death. She inherited a trove of family photographs, geneaologies, and memorabilia. She devoted the last years of her life compiling and disbursing these to family and libraries. She labored for years to compile the family stories of several generations into a book printed for her family in 2017 in connection with her 96th birthday. Title is The Bryants of Rugby Avenue.
She was the last archivist of the historic Ruhama Baptist Church, overseeing the placement of many of the church’s archives at Samford University’s Special Collections Library. She wrote and privately published History of Woman’s Missionary Union of Ruhama Baptist Church in 1991. After the closing of Ruhama congregation in late 2001, she joined First Baptist Church of Irondale. There she chaired the history committee and compiled a history of the church. In 2012, ill health forced her to stop writing, and her manuscript was distributed privately under the title The Saints Go Marching On: The First 87 years of History First Baptist Church of Irondale. She compiled her family kitchen recipes and recollections under the title Mama’s Cooking, circulated to family and friends for her 89th birthday.
She will be buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Birmingham.
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