Doris Betts

Erskine & Mary, so sorry to hear of the death of your mother & mother in law, Doris Betts. I've (Brenda) enjoying many Betts' books, & have loved her writing. Sending our deepest sympathy.
Your neighbors,
Brenda & Keith McFarland

I met Doris Betts as a colleague and friend of my father, Robert Bain. She was the epitome of the "Southern Woman"...elegance, grace, strength, humor and charm... with the voice of an angel. Her absence will be felt greatly for a great time.

May you rest in peace dear sister...I was a frustrated young wife and mother trying to balance motherhood, writing, and supporting a husband in graduate school when Doris and I met for the first time. Her friendship with my former husband was the sweetest gift for me. Their "people" were from Iredell County was the hook for their many conversations about Southern living. I will forever cherish a lengthy compassionate letter Doris wrote to me after the deaths of my daughter, Imani and...

To know that Doris, of whom I am very fond and for whom I have enormous respect for her writing, teaching, and pure professionalism,is no longer in this world, that I will never see her again, makes me very sad. She was my first editor, for a story in CORRADI, Women's College of NC, and I have followed her life and work ever since, including a time when I was writer in residence at Chapel Hill and visited her writing class--she arrived in hurry and left in a hurry, doing what she did...

I never did become a writer - far less a Southern writer - but Doris Betts (to us it was always both names: "Doris Betts") was one of the two most important people in my undergraduate experience. She taught me most of what I do know about writing, and an awful lot about listening, about accepting other people's ability to solve their own problems and puzzles in their own ways, about taking chances, about trying and trying again.

Doris Betts had me visit her once a month. I was a 9th grader, had written a poem about Giacometti and the voice of God for the Methodist church bulletin, and a member thought I needed to meet Doris Betts, who lived across the creek--Sanford,NC, 1964. I was supremely awed and fasinated as she introduced me to language as a sacred trust. She fed me Roethke, O'Connor, Faulkner, Rilke, Warren, etc. We had two of the most amazing lunches in Pittsboro more recently, and even this last fall she...

Doris was inspiring - honest, kind, and tireless. I have to think there are very few people that knew her that don't feel in her debt. The level of effort she devoted to her students is humbling, as is the grace with which she handled us. She taught by example how to be a better person and writer, and even if I can't live up to her example, I am fortunate beyond my deserving to have it.

After I wrote my Master's thesis about Doris Betts, I eventually met her on the steps of UNC's Memorial Hall after one of her speeches, and she was a delight. She actually asked to read my thesis, and after I sent it to her, she was kind enough to respond with lovely words of encouragement. I continued to correspond with her and seek her out at book signings and other literary events. She was one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking writers not only of the South, but of our time. I...

A wonderful and witty writer, a warm and friendly woman who I never had the privilege to meet in person. She will be missed by all who knew her personally, and those of us who knew her through her stories, novels and reputation.