Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Jackson

Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Jackson died at 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, April 29, 2006, in Miller’s Merry Manor, Plymouth, where she had lived for the past five years.

She would have been 103-years-old on July 7th.

Betty said in an interview three years ago that she had “enjoyed her life, with her family and her God as the cornerstone.”

An active full-time elementary school teacher for over 30 years, she was always proud to be a school teacher. She first taught in Harrison County schools and later in the Stephen Decatur School in Decatur Township of the Marion County School System for 17 years.

She was known for her great love and empathy for all children.

Betty was born on a farm outside of Corydon, Indiana, on July 7, 1903. She was the only daughter with six brothers of Ira and Melissa Jane (Jennie) Sharp Davis.

Betty graduated from high school when she was 16. Jobs were scarce. She was offered a chance to teach school in the fall and winter if she would go to Indiana University summers to earn her teaching license.

She taught school in a one-room schoolhouse and continued going to college until she received her two-year teacher’s license. She couldn’t afford to continue her education, but always dreamed of getting a degree.

In 1965, 35 years later, after years of correspondence courses, Betty graduated from Indiana University with her degree. It was one of her life’s proudest moments.

She met Paul Jackson on a blind date while she was a student at IU. He was studying engineering at Purdue University. The couple were married in Betty’s home the day after Christmas in 1929, and lived in Bedford, Indiana. Paul started working for Indiana University in 1939. He was first the assistant superintendent of buildings and grounds in Bloomington and then the superintendent in Indianapolis of the buildings and grounds at the IU Medical Center.

Betty loved painting and working with colors and after retirement became an accomplished artist. She painted many pictures until undiagnosed pernicious anemia ruined the fine muscle control in her hands.

Diagnosed with a terminal disease in 1971, the couple, with friends, toured all of Europe that summer in an automobile. She cared for Paul in their home throughout the progression of the disease until his death 11 years later. They had been married 53 years when Paul died on October 19, 1982, in Englewood, Florida where they had spent many winters.

Betty was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a fifty year member of Eastern Star #129 of Bedford, Indiana. She was a retired member of ISTA/NEA, a member of IRTA and the Marshall County Retired Teachers Association and a life member of the Marion County Retired Teacher Association. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Mary Joan Joyce and Richard Joyce of Plymouth. Two grandchildren, Mary Margaret (Peggy) and her husband, Larry Magnesen, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and J. Patrick Joyce, of Plymouth, also survive.

Three great-grandchildren of, Cincinnati, Ohio survive as well. They are: Eric Scott, Robert Thomas and Mary Caroline Magnesen.

Friends will be welcomed to celebrate the life of Betty Jackson on Tuesday, May 2, 2006 from 4 to 7 P.M. in the Johnson – Danielson Funeral Home, 1100 North Michigan Street Plymouth, Indiana.

Funeral services for Betty will be at 1:00 P.M. on Wednesday May 3, 2006 in the Johnson – Danielson Funeral Home with the Rev. Dr. Ron Liechty, of the First Presbyterian Church, Plymouth, Indiana will officiate.

Entombment will be in the New Oakhill Mausoleum, Plymouth, Indiana Memorial gifts may be made her church.