Betty Lawyer died on January 14th, 2018, at Provision Assisted Living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi from complications of Alzheimer's dementia.

Betty was born Betty Jane Istre, on August the 25th of 1930, in Jennings, Louisiana. She was the fourth of six children born to Jack and Lily Istre. She grew up in Jennings, Louisiana. After graduating Jennings High School in 1947, she attended a business school and then worked as a secretary.

She met Neal Phillips as he was passing through the Jennings Church of Christ as part of a missionary team. They married on September 15th of 1953, and were steadfast in their marriage until his untimely death in January of 1990. She and Neal had three sons: David, Dwayne, and Dennis, born in 1955, 1958, and 1962 respectively. Neal Phillips was a Minister of the Gospel. They moved among Church of Christ congregations and lived in Mobile, Alabama, Gallatin, Tennessee, Dallas, Texas, Cardiff, California, and Independence, Louisiana.

After Neal's death, Betty married Kenneth Lawyer, also a Minister of the Gospel, in 1992. They were married until Kenneth's death in 2002.

Betty is survived by her sister Jeannette Mesh of Lake Charles, Louisiana as well as her sons David with wife Emily in Ellisville, Mississippi, Dwayne with wife Karen in Reston, Virginia, and Dennis in Independence, Louisiana. She is also survived by five grandchildren (Susan Phillips Rogers, and Seth, James, Nathan, and Adam Phillips) several step grandchildren, and four great grandchildren (James, Leah, Olin, and Steven Phillips).

First and foremost, Betty was a Christian. Raised in the love of the Lord and the study of the Bible at the Jennings Church of Christ, she married two preachers and was faithful in the duties of "the preacher's wife" teaching children's Bible classes for several generations and encouraging others in the work of the Lord.

Betty loved her grandchildren. She always took them into her Sunday school class whenever they visited her. A great joy of her life was knowing that they had all chosen to follow God and had been baptized. She prayed resolutely over the years, and her prayers guided her children and grandchildren through the trials of life and years of growth in the Lord.

Betty used flower arrangement, ceramics, sewing, cooking, and other skills to enrich the lives of her family and friends.  She  learned knitting from a Red Cross volunteer in the 1940s and knitted scarves to be sent to soldiers overseas during the war. Her hobbies included visiting with her family, gardening, walking on the country roads around her home, working word search puzzles, and watching football.  She was happiest outdoors. She loved to work in her manicured yard, pushing a lawn mower into her 80s, and growing vegetables in her garden, which she always shared with others.  When she was no longer able to go outdoors, she still found a sense of purpose helping her son to shell peas and crack pecans.  She truly lived the Christian principles that she learned by caring for others.