Thursday, April 18, 2024
Bettie Lee Hooker, age 85, the oldest daughter of the late Pearl Estelle Sims and Robert Lee Featherston, died Saturday, November 19, 2022, in her home in Gatesville, the town where she was born, went to school, married, worked, and raised her family.
Funeral services were held on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, at 11 a.m. at Scott’s Funeral Home. Burial followed at Greenbriar Cemetery.
Bettie, the oldest of nine children, worked hard her entire life. She carried her family through the tough times, she kept her children fed, and clothed. She paid for speech therapy, glasses and saw to it her children’s needs were met. She did this as a single mother on a factory wage.
In her early years she married and moved to Kansas. Bettie returned to Gatesville with her children and married Bill Hooker and his seven children, bringing the blended family together under her wing.
She would later open her home further to Pa and Granny Hooker, Bill’s parents, until their deaths. When that chapter closed and the children raised, she and Bill moved from her longtime home on Barton Lane to West Main in Gatesville where she and Bill operated Hooker Upholstery.
She was a good mother and her children loved her. Her life was one where, no matter what the challenge, she gave of herself.
Her passing was a peaceful ending to a good life. She was and is loved and leaves behind a thankful family.
Bettie was preceded in death by husband, Bill; Nelda McGehee, Katherine Smith, Alice Breckenridge, and five of her grandchildren, Patricia, Jeff, Chester, Katrina, and Aaron.
She leaves behind to cherish her memory her children, Connie Lee, Mary Breshears, Bobby Brown, and Larry Brown; brothers and sisters; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren; as well as many nieces and nephews.
