Betty Bright Taylor Gentry

Graveside services celebrating the life of Betty Bright Taylor Gentry will be held Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden, Louisiana with Rev. Steve Gilley and Rev. John Franklin officiating. The family will receive friends at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday at Rose-Neath Funeral Home in Minden prior service time.

Betty was born August 28, 1928 in El Dorado Arkansas and went with her Lord and Savior August 14, 2020 surrounded by family and friends. Betty was a member of First Baptist Church in Minden since 1942 and was very active until her later years. She worked 35 ½ years with Southern Bell, South Central Bell, and AT&T as an operator, service representative and assistant manager and retired in 1985. Past member of Eastern Star, Telephone Pioneers, Young Women’s Service Club, Town and Country Garden Club, Pine Hills Country Club, and her Bridge Club. She used her artistic talent for many activities at her church and criminal investigations to prepare composite sketches of suspects for the Webster Parish Law Enforcement, and in 1971 she drew Minden’s official centennial emblem. Betty loved entertaining in her home, cooking and playing cards with family and friends; they even had a Saturday night couple’s card group for 25 years.  She enjoyed traveling with family to Vegas, cruises, and the horseraces. She will be missed by all who had the opportunity to know and love her.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Mina and Thelma Bright; her husband of 49 years, Delmer D. “Buddy” Taylor; daughter, Judy Cheryl Taylor; son, Robert Dean Taylor; sister and brother-in-law, Marjorie and Bernard Whaley; niece, Peggy McClendon; nephew, Danny Calise, and second husband, E.W. Gentry.

She is survived by her son and daughter, Dal and Elisha Taylor; sister, Dolores Calise and husband Vito; brother, Rudolph Bright and wife Betty; special nieces, Sharon Garland and husband Tom and Jeannie Sills and husband Norris; nephews, Nick, Greg, and Stephen Calise; and many great nephews, nieces and many cousins and friends.

Pallbearers will be Paul Brantley, Rickey Brown, Tom Garland, Allan Oglesby, Austin Oglesby, and Dillard Sikes.

Honorary pallbearers will be C.W. Greer, Gene Jones, and Norris Sills.