Bettye Tucker Anding

1935 - 2023

Bettye Tucker Anding died suddenly of natural causes on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at The Trace Senior Living Community in Covington, LA. She was 88. She was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Robert D. Anding, and a son, William Mark Anding. She is survived by her daughter, Jill Anding of Abita Springs; two sisters, Geneva Shenk of Vancouver, WA and Martha Quarles of Moundville, AL; a brother, Robert J. Tucker of Lynchburg, VA; a step-son, Robert D. Anding II (Diane) of Metairie; two grandsons, Roke Webster of New Orleans and Jack Webster of Asheville, NC; and three step-grandsons, Robert III, David and Michael Anding, all of Metairie. She was the daughter of the late R.K. and Geneva Tucker and was born and spent her early childhood in Elysian Fields, TX, a small rural community in northeast Texas. Her family later moved to Hattiesburg, MS, where she attended Hattiesburg High School (Class of 1953) and then received a BA in Journalism in 1956 from Mississippi Southern College. After an internship at the Hattiesburg American, she moved to Jackson, MS, to work as a reporter for the Clarion-Ledger, where she was assigned to cover a variety of news events, most notably interviewing Elvis Presley when he returned to his hometown of Tupelo, MS, for a concert there in 1956. With the ambition of pursuing a career in journalism, she moved to New Orleans in 1958, where she became a news reporter for The States-Item and met her husband, Bobby; they married in 1959. Following the birth of a son and daughter, she returned to work in the late 1960's as a reporter for The States-Item Women's Section, covering and overseeing many topics, from food and fashion to movies and the famed Dear Abby advice column. She became the section's editor in 1971, and for the next 29 years was at the helm through a series of format and name changes- taking it from Women to Family to Lifestyle and, after the merger with The Times-Picayune in 1980, to the Living Section. She retired in 2000 at the age of 65 and became a doting grandmother to her daughter's two sons, Roke and Jack. She also volunteered for the NO/AIDS Taskforce, delivering meals twice a week to homebound AIDS patients for more than 10 years. She continued to write a column called "Silver Threads," which she had begun a few years before her retirement and which chronicled her own experiences and a variety of topics concerning seniors. She was an inveterate traveler, traversing the US and circling the globe over the years with her husband, often on trips organized for newspaper food writers. Over several decades she visited all of Europe, and much of China, India, Russia, Turkey, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Vietnam, as well as many destinations in South and Central America. Her last itinerary took her to Cuba when it first was re-opened to tourists. Visitation will begin at 12 noon Friday, Aug. 25, at Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home, 3827 Canal Street, and will be followed with a Celebration of Life memorial service at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please donate to local kitchens and shelters for the homeless or to NO/AIDS Taskforce. Condolences may be left at www.schoenth.com