Helen Elizabeth Burton

family, in her home in Youngsville, NC on March 12, 2020, having reached her personal goal of

95 the Sunday before.

Second of nine children to Helen and George Joyce. Betty went to St. Theresa's primary and

North Tarrytown high school.

Betty Burton was a loving and generous woman. Patience was something she had in

abundance as well as being able to listen. Her life was anything but easy and finding the light

was an inborn gift. The nickname her siblings gave her was “Pollyanna”, as she was able to

see “the whole picture” no matter what the situation and combined with an inner light, it gave

her a path that she could walk gracefully.

As a middle schooler Betty took up tap dancing, performing with the school troop doing shows

and entertaining the prisoners in Sing Sing. She continued her joy of tap dancing well into her

80s where she performed seasonally with folks in her retirement community, the Hacienda Del

Rio in Edgewater Florida.

Betty and her husband raised nine children in North Tarrytown, New Lebanon & Milan New

York. Aside from being a homemaker, she worked at Eastern aircraft during World War II in

North Tarrytown, owned an ice cream shop in Redhook New York, and after moving to Florida,

became a nurses aide. She always kept busy learning to swim, play tennis and participate in

the activities in her retirement community. She enjoyed singing in the Hacienda chorus and in

her church, including going to nursing homes to entertain the elderly “at 80”. Apart from

singing and tap dancing, Betty loved knitting, crocheting, reading & rock hounding. She said

once, one of her joyous times was when her children came home from school… In later years,

that joy remained whenever her “kids” came home.

She is survived by a Brother, David Joyce of Albuquerque, N.M. and a sister, Marianne

Connelly of N.C. and her children John Joyce of Austin Tx, Sharon Lyon of Bethel, ME, William

Burton of Youngsville, N.C., Scott Burton in N.Y., Mark Burton FL, Lynette Derrico of

Wilmington N.C., Barbara Burton Newport, N.C. & Nina Burton of New Bern N.C.. To this list

are added16 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.