Elizabeth Bannerman

1940 - 2024

Elizabeth Bannerman
11/22/1940 - 09/12/2024
Obituary
Elizabeth C. Bannerman
On Thursday, September 12, 2024, Elizabeth Carter Bannerman passed away peacefully in her bed at home, as she wanted. Diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of neuroendocrine cancer Betsy, true to her independent nature, exercised her right under the California End of Life Options Act so that she, and not cancer, would be in charge.
Betsy entered the world on November 22, 1940, in Montclair, NJ. She was the second of four children born to Ray and Kitty Carter, Sally before her and Susie after, followed by brother Beau. She was always a free spirit with an independent streak. At 12 she was the only girl on the school soccer team, At 16 she championed Adlai Stevenson in a family of staunch Republicans. A t 23 she outraged her mother by traveling to New York City without high heels or lipstick, neither being a requirement of her job writing celebrity bios for Cleveland Amory. She soon moved to New York into a fifth-floor walkup in Greenwich Village with a shower in the kitchen. Judy Collins once visited her there. She met Pogo creator Walt Kelly in the neighborhood bar,
In her late 20s, cat in tow, Betsy drove West and settled in San Francisco. There she fell in love with and married her first cousin, Davy Bannerman, thereby shocking two sets of parents. Together she and Davy bought and fixed up the little house on York Street which she never left. After Davy's death from cancer she adopted a son, Cody Carter Bannerman. She delighted in the love and struggle of single motherhood and found support with a group of other single mothers, creating enduring bonds. Sadly, Cody passed away at age 35 in 2020, a heartache no parent should have to experience. The following year she poured her heart into the San Francisco Threshold Choir, a group of extraordinary women who sing at bedside for those in hospitals, nursing homes, or hospice. Many of these wonderful women came to sing to Betsy in her final days, songs she had sung to others, including some she had written herself.
In her lifetime Betsy was a preschool teacher, a film editor, a quilt maker, a guitar and mandolin player who often gathered with other folksingers, a songwriter, a poet, a writer of short stories and one young adult novel, a volunteer at St. Martin de Porres soup kitchen, and a craftswoman. Her trademark gift was soft block for a newborn, the baby's initial on one panel and things that began with that letter on the other five. She was determined to finish two more blocks before she died, sewing by hand in bed. The last one went to the child of one of Cody's best friends.
She loved music, Maine, vegetarian food, interesting women, red wine, a good fire, reading fiction, playing Scrabble and later Wordle, liberal causes, sunshine on the back deck, art, chocolate, children, the Giants, and especially her friends and family. The last of the Carter girls, she leaves behind her brother, four nephews, a niece, a goddaughter, the neighbor who fixed everything, her best friend who brought her books and frittata, a host of cousins and their children, and many beloved singers and other friends
At her request she was cremated with her front door key in her pocket so that if she ever got lost, she could always "find "her way home." There will be only an informal memorial sometime next summer around a campfire, with music of course. (And maybe a little scattering….) She has already arranged for donations to many charities, but if you wish to do something to honor her life, look for a way to make the planet a little safer or someone's life a little better.