Betty J. Moore's Obituary
After being diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time in October 2008, Betty was prepared for the fight. She never complained about her illness, countless medical appointments, procedures, hospitalizations, or non-stop chemotherapy. Instead she learned ways to adapt to the new road blocks caused by her illness and made the best out of every situation. As her strength weakened, she discovered that a yellow rubber glove was her best friend for opening every jar or bottle.
Betty was born on the 26th of October 1940 in Charles Town, West Virginia to Annie Rebecca Cross and Richard Taylor. In early childhood she moved to Connecticut and then moved to New York City as a young woman to attend nursing school. She spent most of her twenties in the Big Apple working as a nurse. It was during this time that she discovered her love of babies in the nursery and pursed positions that would keep her in the nursery and not on the floor with adult patients. In her thirties she moved to San Francisco, California where she met her late-husband, Jessie Eugene Moore, and began raising her two children. After several years in the Bay Area, Betty and her husband moved with their family to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, spending a year in Twain Harte and then a year in Sonora, California before moving to the Southern California high desert town of Lucerne Valley. From 1979 to 2005, she lived in that small desert town and raised her children while working the night shift at Barstow Community Hospital as a Licensed Vocational Nurse in the nursery until her retirement in 2003.
Besides her work and her family, Betty enjoyed her sports. She rarely attend a live game or match but did attend every one of her son's pee-wee, little league, and high school games. She was an avid fan of professional football and basketball, watched both the summer and winter Olympic Games, but her favorite sport was women's professional tennis and she actively followed the careers of both Serena and Venus Williams.
All of her life Betty was a giver to both family and friends, of her time, support, and companionship to all those who meant the world to her. In particular for the last eight years of her life she cared for her granddaughter Kyla non-stop. Ever day, before and after her cancer returned, she woke up every morning, got her granddaughter dressed, did her hair, and together they would run errands, go to the store, or go to Betty's appointments. When Kyla began school Grandma Betty would take Kyla to school each morning and pick her up from school or her after school programs. Without fail Betty had a home cooked dinner on the table five nights a week! She was just old school in that way. She always said that a little girl should wear ironed clothes and she ironed Kyla's board shorts, jeans or t-shirts every week.
On 30 June 2014, at 4:00 AM, Betty Jane Moore (née Cross) mother of Joshua David Moore and LaKellia Moore, and grandmother or Gma, to Kyla Moore, passed away peacefully in her sleep after a long fought and courageous six year and eight month battle with Stage-IV Metastatic Breast Cancer. She is also survived by her grandson Julian, sisters Veronica Turner, Lilly "Rita" Johnson, and Pardalia Sullivan, and brothers Carter Smith, Tommy Smith, and Larry Smith, a multitude of extended family members across the country, and remembered by dear and cherished friends. The family will be honoring Betty's wishes and holding a private memorial at a place and time to be determined. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that a donation be made in Mrs. Moore's name to the charity of their choice.
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