Elizabeth B Poe

Elizabeth “Betty” Poe passed away Saturday, April 1st at Tampa General Hospital. She was born in Tampa General 92 years earlier. In between, she lived a wonderful life. An only child, she lived in Seminole Heights growing up where she would use the Tarzan call to gather her friends in the neighborhood to play. They would play with paper dolls, skate on sidewalks, play baseball and basketball, and climb orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees and eat the fruit. She attended Hillsborough High School, where she won the American Legion Award for Leadership. That was one of her favorite things because it was a surprise to her. In high school she met Billy Poe, the love of her life, whom she would marry. For 60 years Bill and Betty shared a life together, including a brief stint in the Air Force where they were stationed in Japan. In Japan, Betty liked to make lemonade for the local little girls. She recently commented that she’d like to go and see how their lives turned out. Upon returning home to Tampa, Bill Jr., Keren, Marilyn and Janice were born. Fourteen years after Janice, Charlie was born. Betty loved her family, and they remain very close. She had sixteen grandchildren and twenty-one great-grandchildren. Her life was full of celebrations and fun with family. She loved the beach and making drip castles and going for walks and picking up shells and sharks’ teeth. She loved pool parties at her house. She used to go bass fishing with the family over Thanksgiving at Charlie and Haven Poe’s Green Swamp Lodge and she holds the record for catching the largest bass (AnnaMae) in the family at 13 lbs. 2 oz. She loved to feed people and Betty Poe’s brownies and chocolate chip cookies were famous with her children and grandchildren and more importantly, their friends. Betty loved her friends, including her 39ers group that got together for decades and still would get together every so often with wonderful friends including Pug, Beverly and Mary Esther. Betty loved to travel with friends and family. She traveled all around the world from Singapore to Spain to Hawaii to the Bahamas. Sometimes just with Bill, more frequently with friends and family. She and Bill would go on yearly trips around the US with brother and sister-in-law Charlie and Haven Poe, the Bailes’, and the Larmon’s. Betty and Bill also had a yearly trip with the Ranon’s to the SEC basketball tournament. She attended two Olympic games with friends and family. She could also be found wherever there was a family member playing a sport or performing whether it was baseball, softball, dance recitals, judo matches, swimming, a concert, basketball, danceros, soccer, or tennis if someone she loved was in it, she was likely there. Anybody that knew Betty knew that she was a generous person. She was generous with her time, her love, her attention, and her resources. She demonstrated generosity on a day-to-day basis and she also founded with Bill at the University of Florida, the Elizabeth B. and William F. Poe Center for Business Ethics Education and Research, now among the premier ethics programs in the country. She also worked for Peninsular Telephone Company, was on the board of the PTA and Woman’s Club, was a member at Bayshore Baptist Church and a member at Tampa Yacht & Country Club for 50 plus years. Betty was a sweet, kind, tough, encouraging, grateful, loving woman. She had a great sense of humor and didn’t take herself too seriously. She lived a life surrounded by love. She was a lover of life. She often said that she lived a blessed, wonderful life. The world is a better place because she was in it. She is deeply missed, and we will always love her more than all the world!

Betty is survived by her children, William Frederick Poe, Jr., Keren Poe Smith, Marilyn Poe Lunskis (Tim), Janice Poe Mitchell, and Charles Edwin Poe (Corey); her grandchildren, Shannon Foster Fitzpatrick, Megan Lynn Smith (Hershel), Michelle Poe Vokus (Justin), Kelly Smith Bradham (Drew), William Holland Poe (Ruth), Brigdon Kenton Foster, Jr. (Christie), Kara Mitchell Johnson (George), Kate Marie Lunskis (DJ), Bennett Poe Foster (Jenny), Susanna Foster Brown (Daniel), Christopher Patrick Lunskis (Claire), Eric James Poe, Maribeth Ann Mitchell (Josh), Charles Weston Poe, Holland Elizabeth Poe, Barron Wilson Poe; her 21 great-grandchildren; her nieces and nephews, Diane Lewis (Russell), Ronnie Anderson (Joan), Lynn Poe Reynolds (Bob Grieb), Jennifer Wolf (Boyd); her loving cousins, Henry Moore (Florence), Nancy Henry (Charlie), Kathy Curtiss (Tom); and many more wonderful nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Betty is preceded in death by her husband, William Frederick Poe Sr.; her mother, Addie Arnold Blackburn; her father, Edwin Eugene Blackburn; her sister-in-law, Haven Wilson Poe; her brother-in-law, Charles Willoughby Poe; her sister-in-law, Doris Poe Anderson; her brother-in-law, Julian Anderson; her mother-in-law, Zula Willoughby Poe; her father-in-law, Frederick Holland Poe; her new nephew, Wayne Anderson; her cousins, Pat Hart, Jim Hart; and her great-nephew Jay Wolf.

The family expresses sincere gratitude to her caretakers: Shirley, Brenda and Lidia. If you would like to give a gift in her honor, please donate to one of Betty’s favorite organizations: Academy Prep Center of Tampa, Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay or Holy Trinity Lutheran School-Tampa, FL.

A visitation will be held on Monday, April 10, 2023 from 4pm until 7pm at Blount & Curry Funeral Home 605 S MacDill Ave, Tampa. The memorial service will be at 11am on April 11, 2023 at Blount & Curry Funeral Home with reception at the funeral home following the service. A family only graveside service will follow.