Elizabeth ( “Betsy”) Lee Kern

Elizabeth ("Betsy") Lee Kern passed away peacefully surrounded by her loving family at home in Sarasota, Florida on April 6, 2026 after a nearly 30 year valiant battle with breast cancer. She was seventy-eight years old and is survived by her husband Mike, siblings Cathy, Charlie and Eleanor, sister-in-law Beth, children Jason (Katherine) and Krissy (Rich), and grandchildren Devon, Tai, Peter, Jason, Bowie, and Beckett.

Betsy was born in 1947 in Terre Haute, IN to Hugh and Eleanor Ray Lee and was raised in Terre Haute and St. Louis. As a child, she was a great lover of animals, including her horse Buck, which she famously escorted down to her parents' linoleum-floored basement, with predictably comedic results. She enjoyed spending time at her Uncle Chuck's farm and her summers sailing and waterskiing on Lake Maxincuckee in Northern Indiana at the family cottage, built in 1901. She was an excellent student and combined nearly perfect math SAT scores with a passion for reading, which she retained throughout her life - she was frequently caught in her youth by her parents reading books by flashlight under the covers late into the night.

Betsy graduated from Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis and attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. In her first semester Freshman year, she met Mike, who would be the love of her life and her best friend for the next 60 years. The two were married in 1968 while undergrads and lived in the married students apartments their senior year.

Betsy started computer programming at Vanderbilt and, after graduation, started her career in data processing and systems management at the University of Virginia, a rare career path for a woman in the early 70s. She worked full-time to support Mike through his MBA at UVA and followed him and his career to Alabama and Connecticut in increasingly senior roles in the IT departments at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Hartford, from which she retired as a Systems Management Executive after 32 years.

She was an attentive, creative and loving mother and the rock of the family. When the kids were younger, she enjoyed many family sailing trips and vacations to Navarre Beach, FL and as the children grew, she embarked with the family on increasingly global adventures all over Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia - with New Zealand and Spain becoming personal favorites. She supported her kids and eventually grandkids as a loyal and enthusiastic attendee at innumerable play rehearsals, little league and softball games, cross-country meets, and lacrosse and ice hockey games.

She had a keen eye for interior design and was a self-taught handy woman, designing and renovating numerous kitchens and bathrooms over the years, from creating the technical specs with computer software to executing many of them herself, from framing and tiling to plumbing and electrical.

She was a life-long passionate St Louis Cardinals fan, frequently keeping score by hand, evaluating the farm system in great detail, and quoting her favorite Bob Gibson pitching lines or Albert Pujols heroics to anyone who would listen. In later years, she became a devoted fan of the men's and women's basketball programs at both UConn and Vanderbilt. She and Mike were members of the Hartford Golf Club for 40 years and, like many of us, her beautiful swing was rarely fully reflected on the score card.

Betsy set an example for all of us. She was beautiful but not vain, smart but not smug, impactful in all she had to offer but never loud or boastful. She was the calm in the storm for all those around her. She reveled in the unfolding stories of her children's and grandchildren's lives. She was funny and witty in her own right, but enjoyed even more being an appreciative audience for the jokes and antics of her beloved husband.

The family asks that people make a donation to the American Cancer Society in her memory.