Betty ALLISON

1926 - 2018

ALLISON, Betty Jo Betty Jo Allison, of 3209 Village Green Drive, Waco, Texas, and formerly of Smithville, Texas, passed away peacefully on February 1, 2018. Graveside funeral services honoring her long and fruitful life will be held Monday, February 5, at 1:00 p.m. at Oakhill Cemetery in Smithville, Texas, beside her husband of nearly 54 years at his death in 2001.The Reverend Cindy Layton will officiate and the interment will be under the direction of Marrs-Jones-Newby Funeral Home in Smithville and Bastrop. The family will welcome friends prior to and after the services at the graveside. Betty was born Betty Jo Lewis in Alexander, Texas March 1, 1926. Her parents were Alice Sanders and Nathan Dale Lewis, both of whom are deceased. She lived there until her family moved to Haskell County, Texas. She graduated from Rule High School in 1944 and became a home maker and wife when she married Desmond Clyde Allison of Rule in 1947. In the 1950s she and Desmond worked at farming in Rule, then near Stamford, Texas until 1957 when the family of five moved 3 miles north of Rule, Texas to a larger farm endeavor. Betty graduated from college and became a special education teacher, eventually earning a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas in the early 1960s. Betty and Desmond moved to Austin, Texas in the late 1970s to work and be near Charlotte and Chris's families and children. Desmond had retired from farming by then but Betty continued to help diagnose and provide education services for school children with special needs, championing their educational development through the Special Education system. Betty and Desmond moved to Mexia, Texas in 1984 where Crawford had opened a family medicine practice and she became the Limestone County Special Education Cooperative director for over 10 years. She and Desmond moved to Smithville, Texas in 1995 to be close to Charlotte and Tom Mullery and their children, and Betty became a diagnostics and counsellor for several school systems in the Smithville and Bastrop area, until she retired again in 2009, following Desmond's death in 2001. When sight and hearing sensory impairment took their toll on her health, she relocated to Waco, Texas in March, 2016 to live in a senior apartment facility, Lakeshore Estates, where she quickly made friends (and, some said, she "began to run the place"), helping other residents, playing bingo 3 days a week (though she could barely hear or see!) riding the NewStep exercise bike sometimes twice a day. A fall and injury in November, 2017 led to her deterioration and gradual demise. Preceding her in death were her parents and husband Desmond, and her sister Bobbie Beth Agnew. Betty is survived by her three children, Charlotte Mullery and her husband Tom of Georgetown, Texas, David Christopher Allison of Harwood, Texas, and his ex-wife Debbie of Waco, and Dr. Crawford Allison and his wife Kathy of Waco, and Betty's cousin Dick Poe of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is also survived by seven grandchildren: David Hays Allison, Amy Kaszak, husband Jeff, Beth Barr and husband Jeb, Jennifer Sternberg and husband Andrew, Michael Allison, Allison Williams and Shannon Mullery. There are also eight great-grandchildren. The family is grateful for the care provided by Patricia Tijerina and her staff at Love and Care and Texas Home Health Hospice, as well as her family doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Turnage at the Hillcrest Bosque Clinic in Waco.