Betty Joyce Gray Denson

November 8, 1928 - June 14, 2020

Betty Joyce Gray Denson was born to Orra Mae and Jewel Earl Gray on November 8,1928 in Warren, Arkansas, and passed away on Sunday, June 14,2020 in Tyler, Texas. “B.J.” graduated from Warren High School in 1946 and Texas State College for Women in 1950 in Denton, Texas. She taught in Hamburg, Arkansas, in 1950-1951, before moving to Big Spring, Texas, in July of 1951 where she continued her teaching career for twenty years. She taught at Washington and Park Hill elementary schools and Goliad Jr. High School. In 1971, B.J. and her husband, Jack McVay Denson, whom she married in 1964, moved to Tyler, Texas, when he was transferred there as district manager for American Petrofina. B.J. resumed her teaching career at Bell Elementary School. When the target gifted classes were added to the T.I.S.D. curriculum, she joined their staff. B.J. was active in community and school activities and her professional organizations. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an honorary teacher society, and served in the Beta Kappa chapter in Big Spring and the Theta Nu chapter in Tyler, where she received their annual Achievement Award in 1988. After retiring from her teaching career in 1982, she worked as a consultant in gifted education and participated in Camp Mind’s Eye, a summer camp for gifted children. She retired again in 1986 to start a business of her own, designing and selling customized and personalized sweaters, a career she enjoyed until 1998. B.J. and Jack were members of the Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. B.J. was preceded in death by her husband, parents, younger brother, Jewel Earl Gray Jr. and older brother, Richard Edward Gray and wife Emily Jane Gray, of Warren, Arkansas. She is survived by her nephew, Christopher Richard Gray, wife Karen and their two daughters, Lauren and Emily, of Shreveport, Louisiana. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery in Warren, Arkansas under the direction of Frazer’s Funeral Home on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. June 20,2020 in Oakland Cemetery.