Betty Waldrop Garrett

Betty Waldrop Garrett, who was never called anything by her loving grandchildren other than ‘Momma Bear’, passed away in the early evening of Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at the Magnolia at Oxford Commons surrounded by family and friends at her bedside at the age of eighty-five years.

Visitation will be on Saturday, February 22, 2025, from 5:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. at Thaxton Baptist Church in Thaxton, Mississippi. Services will be on Sunday, February 23, 2025, at 2:00 P.M. at Thaxton Baptist Church with Reverend Jeff Lawrence, Brother Glenn Reeder, and Reverend David Ard officiating. Burial will be in Warren Cemetery in Sand Springs, Mississippi. Waller Funeral Home of Oxford is in charge of arrangements.

Betty was born on November 17, 1939, and is the only child of Preston and Idell Waldrop. She was a graduate of Thaxton High School and the University of Mississippi where she obtained her master’s in education. She married Dexter Garrett on March 18, 1964, and is the devoted mother of one son, Ray. Betty taught home economics at West Union Attendance Center retiring in 1991 after having taught for twenty-nine years.

She loved teaching, but more than that she loved her students and was always delighted when one of her former students would take a moment to walk across a restaurant or store to say hello and share a West Union memory. She especially enjoyed the many years she served as sponsor of the high school yearbook staff and never tired of telling stories about her students. She had a reputation for being strict in study hall, allowing no talking, and the supposed trouble maker students seemed to always find themselves assigned to her table in study hall. Without fail, over the course of the school year, their grades improved and she took great pride in her later years of being referred to by these same students as their favorite teacher. When her son entered high school, the girls in his class, who had by then known her for most of their lives, could not bring themselves to call her Mrs. Garrett and so she became “Ms. G” and she treated them more like her children than her students.

Betty is a lover of animals and was the human mother of many pets over the years all of which were devoted to and ferociously protective of her. She enjoyed traveling with family and friends and always brought home another toothpick holder or teddy bear to add to her collections which were also contributed to by many friends and family members. Among her 847 toothpick holders and 160 teddy bears were ones brought back to her by friends and family from as far away as Korea, France, Russia and the Holy Land. After she retired from teaching, she spent many years making ceramics and her work could be found in gift shops in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. However, her greatest legacy is the undying love she has for her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, as well as her many cousins, church family, and countless friends.

She is survived by her husband of sixty years, Dexter Garrett; her son, Ray Garrett, and his wife, Marcia; granddaughter, Victoria; and grandson, Alexander. She was preceded in death and now joins in Heaven her father, James Preston Waldrop and her mother, Idell Smith Waldrop.

Honorary Pallbearers will be Robert “Hobby” Garrett, Nicky Moore, Ben Reisch, and Dave Sites. Pallbearers will be Steve Berryhill, Jimmy Garrett, Jerry Hester, John Scott, Harold Sneed, Ronnie Steele, John Webb, and Ricky Wise.