Born in San Diego, CA on Dec. 19, 1922
Died Apr. 26, 2008 and resided in San Antonio, TX.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE: Monday, May 5, 2008
Funeral Home: Porter Loring Mortuary
Bettie Martin - beloved wife, mother, sister and friend - will live always in our hearts.
Reared in El Paso, she grew up traveling the West via train (her father was a conductor) and loved travel her whole life.
In her first year of college, she made an instant connection with a young Second Lieutenant and flight instructor, John L. Martin Jr., and they married six months later.
It was a marriage made in heaven - throughout their 66 years together, they remained madly in love and best friends.
John's Air Force career took them many places, and in each one Bettie made a happy home for our family, explored the local area with avid interest, and made life-long friends.
Throughout her life, she also was dedicated to helping others through organizations such as the P.E.O. sisterhood (which provides educational assistance for women), the House of Mercy (which provides a school for the children of low-income working parents in the Washington, D.C. area, where she served on the board of directors for 19 years), and other service organizations.
After John retired as a Major General and became an executive at an aerospace company, they spent nearly 20 years in the Washington D.C. area, where she helped him build an experimental airplane and then joined him on more than 100 flights around the U.S.
They moved to San Antonio in 1989, and she enjoyed nearly 10 active years here - as well as travels abroad with John - before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease appeared.
Her positive spirit and concern for others, even when faced with a devastating illness, inspire us.
A celebration of her life will be held on Monday, May 5th, at 4:15 p.m. at The Towers, One Park Lane, San Antonio.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Alzheimer's Association.