BETTY LINNEY Educator, wife, mother and life long learner, died Monday, June 4, 2012 at age 85, at her home in Peralta, NM of complications of Alzheimer's disease. Betty was born January 17, 1927, in Wilkesboro, NC to the Reverend William E. Linney and Florence Poole Linney. She graduated from Wilkesboro High School and from Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. She began her teaching career in North Carolina. She married Henry B. (Hank) Waugh in Wilkesboro June 23, 1951, and in 1955 they moved out West and embraced the wide open spaces. An overachiever by nature, she was involved with many volunteer organizations while raising her four children, including Head Start, League of Women Voters, Girl Scouts, Presbyterian church Elder, church camp director, PTA, American Association of University Women, Albuquerque Youth Symphony parents association, just to name a few. She was also known for teaching kindergarten to neighborhood kids, teaching Sunday school, and compiling summer reading lists. Mom brought her creativity, sense of humor and expectation of excellence to her many endeavors. She was a steady presence in her children's lives, and collected overflowing drawers full of mementos of their activities. Mom came from a musical family and loved singing hymns at church and harmonizing with her family in the car. She loved the N.M. Symphony, and all four of her children's various concerts. She was a star in her Colorado tennis league, and became a proficient alpine skier. She enjoyed backpacking with her family, climbing 14,000 ft. peaks and camping in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She embraced all sports, could be found watching football on weekends, and later became an avid UNM Lobos women's and men's basketball supporter. She considered herself an early feminist. She relished watching movies, and her fierce devotion to dad was only rivaled by her soft spot for Clark Gable. After her children were all in school, she began graduate school at the University of New Mexico, earned her doctorate in US History, and then taught history for seventeen years at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque, NM. She was very happy there, enjoying both students and colleagues. She retired in 1988, but continued to write and read ravenously from her ever expanding library, and relished her role as grandma and great-grandma. She and dad have enjoyed their retirement ranchette in Peralta, NM, where she resumed her love affair with horses. Betty loved, and taught, and molded character - of her own children, and of thousands of others. Even in illness, she never gave up her sweet nature, easy laugh, engagement with others and love of old movies. She will be sorely missed. Betty lived in Wilkes County, NC, then out west in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Durango Colorado for eight years, Albuquerque NM for 32 years, and Peralta NM for 13 years. She is survived by her husband, her children H. Bernard (Bernie) Jr. and wife Mary, Ann Waugh Page and husband Ernie, William Joseph (Jody) and wife Marsha, and Richard Daniel and wife Rachel; five grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; one sister, Carolyn Pearson; and one brother, Daniel Linney. She was predeceased by four sisters, Pauline Wall, Madge Sturdivant, Helen Cashion and Lillian Foster; and five brothers, Ernest, Edgar, Douglas, Donald and Joseph Linney. A memorial service for Betty will be held at the UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel on Thursday, June 28 at 5:00 PM. The family will receive friends after the service. In lieu of flowers, we think Betty would appreciate a donation to the Alzheimer's Association.
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