Betty Reynolds

Services for Betty M. Reynolds, 84, of Tyler, will be held on Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 2:30 PM, at Stewart Family Funeral Home Chapel with Monsignor Joe Strickland and Rev. Benny Reynolds officiating. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery under the direction of Stewart Family Funeral Home. Betty Jean Mahar Reynolds passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 19, 2009, at her residence in Tyler. She was surrounded by the closest loved ones who had cared for her during these last eight months of hand-to-hand combat with some of the deadliest illnesses and infections known to medical science. Born October 30, 1925, to Sam Wilson Mahar and Verna Ward in Sulphur, Oklahoma, Betty was an only child and beloved by the family, including her grandmother, who did much of the child-rearing after Betty’s father died and her mother sought work in Oklahoma City. Betty graduated from public school in Sulphur in 1946. She played trumpet in high school but did not much care for the required home economics class; in fact, Betty often told the story that the homemaking teacher permitted her to play the trumpet during class instead of trying to cook and sew, which suited them both. Betty married briefly around this time but was divorced. She enrolled at Central State College in Edmond, Oklahoma, in the fall of 1946 and took classes in science, journalism and athletics for several years. Betty also sold advertising for the local newspaper while in college, and by the summer of 1948 she decided to withdraw from school and enter the business world to practice the skills she had already learned. She worked in advertising sales for newspapers in Oklahoma City and Longview before coming to Tyler to sell display advertising at the Tyler Courier-Times Telegraph. In 1951 Betty left the newspaper to begin an advertising agency with a partner, Peggy Elkin. Encouraged in the pursuit of business by W. Abe Pounds, then president of Tyler Bank and Trust, she founded the first woman-owned agency west of the Mississippi. Reynolds Advertising Agency was admitted to the American Association of Advertising Agencies in the late-1970’s, the highest accreditation afforded by that industry. Her clients included Tyler Bank and Trust, East Texas Savings & Loan, Creme Lure Company, Kilgore Ceramics, Johnson’s Jewelers, The French Quarter, The Sportster, The Christmas Store, and many other local and national advertising accounts until her retirement well past the traditional date. A trend-setter most of her life, Betty also owned the first FM radio station in Tyler, KZAK, which broadcast live the details of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Pallbearers will be Thomas Bochow, M.D., Tom S. Gay, C.P.A., Andy Bugg, Ernesto Guevara, Ken Davis, and Waylon Taber. Honorary pallbearers are the members of “Team Betty,” the band of close and devoted friends who devoted many hours to her support and care in her final months. Mrs. Reynolds is survived by her cousins Kay Duncan of San Francisco, California; Bobby Nichols of Fairfield, Texas; Norman Ward of Pueblo, Colorado; Harry Ward, Jr., of Las Vegas, Nevada; Carla Ward Blackburn of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Doris Ward of Edmond, Oklahoma, “Team Betty,” and countless others who adored Betty’s delightful personality, quick wit, forgiving spirit, impeccable ethics, and enduring support. Visitation is scheduled from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Saturday, November 21, 2009 at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Highway, in Tyler. Memorials may be made to the following in honor of Betty Reynolds: Charities: St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 Guideposts Foundation, Peale Center, 66 East Main Street, Pawling, NY 12564 Humane Society of East Texas, 1823 CR 386, Tyler, TX 75708 Order of Christian Workers, 12033 CR 496, Tyler, TX 75706

Betty Reynolds

October 30, 1925 - November 19, 2009