Betty Sue Farmer
Betty Sue Farmer, née Ayers, passed away on Thursday, September 8, 2016.
Chattanooga and the wider world of people who knew and loved her as a generous, loving force of nature, will be a poorer place without her. Wherever she went, she applied herself for good, and left happiness in her wake.
She was born in Chattanooga on June 21, 1940, to Teresa Cooper Ayers and James Arthur Ayers. She grew up and lived most of her life in North Chattanooga. She attended Normal Park and Girls Preparatory School, where she excelled at modern dance as a member of Terpsichord and graduated in 1958. She went on to Vanderbilt University, where she was a Tri-Delt, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and won a degree in history. She started a career at IBM in Columbia, South Carolina, as a systems engineer. At IBM, she met Patrick Kelly, whom she married in 1963. They returned to Chattanooga, and, after the birth of her two children, Susan Lynley Welsh and Timothy Ayers Kelly, she devoted herself to volunteer work, serving as an enthusiastic and dynamic supporter of the Junior League, the Girls’ Club (of which she was president for two years), the March of Dimes, and other causes. She was also known for the enthusiasm with which she contributed her considerable talents to the community. She continued her love for the performing arts by acting in Little Theatre productions, and her friends will remember some of her colorful performances in the Junior League Follies.
Betty Sue discovered tennis during the 1970s and within a few short years established herself as one of the leading figures in the local tennis community. She ran countless tournaments, from the Tennessee Valley Invitational to exhibition matches involving international talents, and served several years on the Chattanooga Tennis Club’s board, four of those as president. In the early 80s she began coaching the UTC women’s tennis team, helping to lead them to three Division II NCAA championships. She was popular with the players, serving as a den mother to members of both the women’s and men’s teams. Around the same time she qualified as a tennis umpire and began a 15-year career as a chair umpire and line judge, working every year at the U.S. Open as well as many other tournaments around North America.
Throughout these years, Betty Sue kept up her hobby of sewing, which, with her good friend Gladys Crates, she at times turned into a business, creating dresses for weddings and other occasions. She qualified and began working as a real-estate broker with Herman Walldorf & Company and later with Barbara Gailmard at Riverview Properties, and she also helped launch a successful business venture, manufacturing and selling Moon Dust, a seasoning salt. One of her partners in that venture, Wayne Farmer, became her second husband in 1991, and the two were very happily married until his death earlier this year. When she could no longer play tennis, she took up bridge with the same level of devotion, and became an active member of the Chattanooga Bridge Center, serving as a board member and director and quickly becoming a Life Master. Betty Sue played a positive role in many more organizations, including the Cotton Ball and the Human Services Department, where she served for a time on the Advisory Board.
To quote a 1979 article from the Chattanooga News-Free Press on her tennis activities: “What makes her run? Why does she spend so much time doing things for which she doesn’t get paid anything? Why doesn’t she get a paying job, or else slow down and take it easy?.... ‘I’m lucky enough that my circumstances make it where I won’t have to work outside the home,’ she said. ‘But I still want to put something back in.’”
A people person through and through, Betty Sue will be sorely missed by many.
In addition to her children, she is survived by four grandchildren, John Livingston Ayers Kelly, William Cannon Kelly, Isabel Eloïse Welsh, and Edward Christian Augustus Welsh; her son-in-law, Jolyon Welsh, and daughter-in-law, Ginny Kelly; three stepchildren, her stepgrandson, Gaston Farmer, and numerous other step grandchildren.
The family will receive visitors at Wann Funeral Home in St. Elmo from 12-2 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19, with a graveside service to be held afterwards in Forest Hills Cemetery. A celebration of life will follow from 4-7 p.m. at the Mountain City Club downtown.
Donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made in her honor to the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga.
Arrangements are by Wann Funeral Home & Cremation Center, 4000 Tennessee Ave., Chattanooga, TN, (423) 821-7551, www.wannfuneralhome.com.