Betty Ruth Shropshire Glover

  Betty Ruth Shropshire Glover celebrated her 100th birthday Wednesday, April 27, 2016 with her two sons, Jere Glover, a lawyer, with his wife Doris who lives in Annapolis, Maryland; and Dr. Lloyd Glover. a urologist and his wife Mary Lou who live in Clifton, Virginia; her granddaughters, Juleanna Glover, Kristen Glover, Elizabeth Sullivan, Rebecca Watkins and great-grandchildren William Weiss, Blythe Weiss, Helena Weiss, Leo Reiter and Shelby Sullivan.
She was the daughter of Joseph Alfred “Bose” Shropshire and Laura Bell Roark. Her maternal great-grandfathers were Maximilian Haney Conner (1806-1893) and Joseph Roark (1813-1876).
Laura Roark Shropshire, Betty’s mother authored the book “Pioneer Days – Stories of the Conner-Roark Ancestry”. Betty wrote and published a genealogy book, “The Lees and Kings of Virginia and North Carolina”, written with her sister, Mrs. Reba Wilson in 1975. Betty was honored to be in “The World Who’s Who of Women, 1988”.
Betty was born April 27, 1916 in the family home built by her father on the western slope of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Before her first birthday, Betty returned with her parents to her mother’s river farm on the Tennessee River. She was just shy of her fifth birthday when her father died there in April 1921 and her mother was forced to struggle in making a living on the farm while taking care of her four children. At Tyner High School, Betty began the serious development of her considerable music talent and with her rich voice, often sang regularly on several Chattanooga radio stations. After graduating from Tyner, Betty enrolled at Berry College, Cadek Conservatory of Music in Georgia, continuing her education with limited funds through a college work program, thus causing her to often miss Christmas at home. When the TVA took her mother’s dairy farm in early 1937, Betty enrolled in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where the following year she was to meet her future husband, William Lloyd “Bill” Glover. Betty received her Bachelor of Science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1940. Betty and Bill were married in Atlanta, Georgia, Aug. 10, 1940.
Following her graduation from the University with a degree with honors in home economics, Betty and Bill made their home in Medina, Tennessee, where Bill taught vocational agriculture in high school. In Medina, Betty and Bill started their family and their two sons were born, William Lloyd Jr. in 1941 and Jere Walton in 1944. After Bill’s military service in World War II, the Glovers made their home in Ridgely, Tennessee, where Bill again taught agriculture and Betty taught home economics in the high school. There Betty began a long tenure as choir director and soloist at the First Baptist Church in Ridgely, while Bill developed a successful career as a professional cattle photographer. Besides her interest and research in genealogy, Betty joined her husband in the operation of a photography business, Glover Studio, which was one of the top livestock photography studios in the nation. She was president of the Henry Lee Society, member of the UDC, DAR, Magna Charta Dames and President of the Roark-Conner Association in 1982.
Following Bill Glover’s death in November 2006, Betty moved to Heatherwood Retirement Community in Burke, Virginia to be near her two sons and their families. There, in her inimitable style, she led a weekly Bible study group. She was President of the Heatherwood Residents Association.
Betty passed away on May 21, 2016 in Fairfax, Virginia. Betty Glover represented the epitome of an active, productive, involved Christian life.
Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. Friday, May 27, 2016 at the Ridgely First Baptist Church conducted by Reverend Jack Henry interment to follow in New Haven Cemetery in Ridgely.
Pallbearers will be Mack Forrester, Kent Patterson, Trent Patterson, Michael Bush, Jerry Bargery and Melvin Barnes.
The Glover family will receive friends at the church beginning at 12 Noon until service time of Friday, May 27th.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be directed to Ridgely First Baptist Church, 300 South Main Street, Ridgely, TN 38080.
Arrangements entrusted to Curry Funeral Home, 1984 St. John Avenue, Dyersburg, TN 38024. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.curryfuneral.com.