Betty Navey Abernathy Wagner

On April 6, 2016, Betty Navey Abernathy Wagner died in Raleigh, NC. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 21, 1926 the only daughter and middle child of William Rufus Navey and Georgia Booth Pate Navey, Betty enjoyed a healthy and active life for most of her eighty-nine years. Betty lived in the Thomasboro and Coulwood areas of Charlotte most of her life moving in her mid-sixties to Raleigh with her sister-in-law Clara Keeter to be closer to her daughter Elizabeth. Granny loved helping to care for Elizabeth’s four boys and especially to drive them to school.

Betty married Clarence Hunter Abernathy in 1949 and enjoyed a happy life with Clarence and their two daughters, Lane and Elizabeth, until his early death in 1968. In 1973 she married Julian B. Wagner after reconnecting while planning their high school reunion. Together they spent much time at their “Other Place” in Surfside, SC near her brother Gene’s family. Sadly Julian died fifteen years later leaving Betty a widow again. Betty’s life was not without hardship but she was a strong survivor always determined to meet the challenge.

In Charlotte she was a respected business leader and mentor in the days when that was rare for women. Betty worked her way up from teller to executive at Mutual Savings and Loan, where she enjoyed a thirty-year career that culminated in multiple nominations for Charlotte’s Business Woman of the Year. A life long Presbyterian Betty was an active member of McQuay Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and later St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Raleigh. She particularly enjoyed the Presbyterian retreats to Montreat.

Betty was a very modern woman who encouraged her daughters to be strong and self-sufficient. She taught them to balance their checkbooks and to do the Twist and she was proud of the families and lives they had built. She was a friend and an inspiration to many and will be missed by them all. Betty is survived by her two daughters Lane Abernathy (Doug Gehley) of Vienna, VA, Elizabeth Abernathy (Steve Tremont) of Raleigh, NC; her grandchildren William Hunter McClamrock (CA), Alexander Lane Tremont (LA), Jordan Elizabeth Gehley (Peter Van Valkenburgh, DC), John Garrison Tremont (NC), Eliot August Gehley (VA), and Stephen Pate Tremont (CO); and Julian’s children Terry Wagner (NC), Gail Knox (NC), Jay Wagner (Joann, GA), their children and grandchildren.

Funeral services will be on Saturday April 9 at 1:00 PM at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Raleigh with Interment on Sunday April 10 at 2:00 PM at Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Huntersville, NC. The family will receive visitors after the memorial service on Saturday at the home of Elizabeth Abernathy and Steve Tremont, 4104 Henry J. Menninger Wynd, Raleigh, NC 27612.

Betty would be happy to know that any donations honoring her memory were sent to Hillary for America, P.O. Box 1700, Merrifield VA 22116-9559.