Betty Tether Loney, of Grove City, beloved wife of the Rev. Charles S. Loney, died Dec. 2, 2011, after an extended illness. She was 83.
Betty and her twin brother Ted were the youngest of the seven children born to James and Mai Lovelady Shewbert of Dalhart, Texas. When their mother died, the twins were adopted by their aunt and uncle, Ted and Mollie Tether of Pauls Valley, Okla.
Betty graduated from Pauls Valley High School in 1946 and enrolled at Central State College in Edmond, Okla., where she was elected president of the Methodist Student Movement for the state of Oklahoma.
She transferred to Southwestern State College in Weatherford, Okla., and was employed there as director of the college’s Wesley Foundation.
Betty graduated cum laude in 1950 and went on to study for her master’s degree in Christian education at Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Ill. There she met Charles, and they were married in 1952. They had four children.
Betty was a social and theological liberal and a lifelong learner. She loved music from classical to folk and especially the Methodist hymnal.
She was a champion – in word and in deed – of the poor and the oppressed.
Betty was an avid reader and a joyful traveler. She visited most of the United States as well as England and the Holy Land.
As an active church member and the wife of a United Methodist minister, she lived in and served many communities from Jackson, Mich., to New Brighton, Wexford, Crafton, Hermitage, Uniontown, McKeesport and Elliot, Pa.
Upon her husband’s retirement, they settled in Grove City where Betty became a member of the Grove City Shakespeare Club and Friends of the Grove City Community Library. She served the latter as secretary for two years.
For most of her life, Betty was an active member of the Methodist Church. For the past several years, she attended Church of the Epiphany (Episcopal) in Grove City.
Betty and Chuck attended many Elderhostels later in life.
Together they enjoyed the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as well as lectures and concerts at Chautauqua (N.Y.) Institution, a place Betty dearly loved.
When she was no longer able to travel she studied art, history, philosophy and music at home.
Interested and interesting, she was a brilliant human being.
Betty was a wonderful mother and a generous and supportive friend, known for her spirit and her wit. Most of all she dearly loved her family.
She will be sorely missed and fondly remembered by all who knew her.
Betty was preceded in death by her parents and her adoptive parents, and by her six siblings, James Shewbert, Lucille Shewbert Johnson, Victor Shewbert, Kenneth Shewbert, Frances Shewbert Miller and her twin brother, Ted Branum Tether.
She is survived by her husband Charles and her children, David, Norfolk, Va.; John and his wife Van, Seal Beach, Calif.; Mary, Ojai, Calif.; and Judy Silva and her husband Marcos, Grove City; as well as her grandchildren, Mason Miller, Bianca and Victor Silva, and Samuel, Matthew and Dominique Loney.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Betty’s name to Grove City Community Library, 125 W. Main St., Grove City, PA 16127; or to the United Methodist Women at United Methodist Women, Memorial Gifts, 475 Riverside Drive, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10115, or through their website at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/give/ways/memory/