Mary Maxine Betzler (nee Huffman) passed peacefully on May 5, 2024, at 101 years surrounded by family in Loveland, Colorado.
She was born Sept. 3, 1922, near Dry Fok in Randolph County to the late Gordon Dayton Huffman and Calcie Marie Harman, both from Pendleton County. She descended from families, who had been in the area since the late 1700s. Great-grandparents included Bennetts, Blands, Lawrences, Teters, Harpers, Harmans, and Huffmans.
By age eight, her family returned to Pendleton County where she and nine surviving siblings attended rural schools. As a girl, she loved the outdoors, riding horses with her brothers, and always considered her childhood “wonderful.” She graduated from Franklin High School in December 1941, receiving the girl’s athletic award, and from the West Virginia Business College in Fairmont, two years later, the first in her family to attend college. In 1943, she moved to Washington, DC, and began work with the Association of American Railroads.
On May 20, 1948, she married Robert Edward Betzler at Holy Name Catholic Church in Washington, DC. The couple had three children and, over the next 51 years, made their home in several states throughout the country. During this time, she worked for the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the College of Du Page in Illinois, George Washington University in Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Annandale, Virginia.
In 1970, the family purchased a home in Reston, Virginia, where her husband passed away on March 6, 1999.
After she retired from NOVA in 1982, she shared many ice cream cones on road trips with a childhood friend, Ruth Hardy Crider, visiting numerous places in the United States and southern Canada. She also traveled to Germany, Austria, Spain, and Turkey with her daughter and family.
Over the years, she attended Franklin High School reunions and, in the fall of 2022 and 2023, returned to West Virginia to reacquaint with Harman and Huffman cousins and introduce her own family to the places of her youth.
As her eyesight failed in later years, she enjoyed books on tape, listening to a jazz ensemble in Leesburg, Virginia, and chorale concerts in Longmont, Colorado, meeting new friends in Colorado, and attending services at Leesburg Presbyterian Church and Namaqua Unitarian‒Universalist Church in Loveland, Colorado. She was a fan of courtroom trials, watched the news avidly, and requested frequent updates on current events and the weather from Amazon Alexa. Robins, sweet peas, babies, horses, coffee ice cream, and Colorado sunshine remained a few of her favorite things.
Nothing brought her more pleasure than her large, extended family including three children, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren, and she frequently flew throughout the United States to visit and assist. Last fall, at age 100, she renewed her passport in preparation for attending a grandson’s wedding in the Caribbean. She was brave in the face of failing health and fierce in her defense of family. Her memory, sense of humor, and sense of fairness remained intact to the end.
She was one of the last surviving members of Franklin High School’s class of 1941.
Surviving are her children, Lynn M. Alex (Stephen C. Lensink), Vicki L. Gasperini (Frank), and William G. Betzler (Tracy); six grandchildren, Ian Schworer (Smita), Kyle Schworer (Amy), Allison Carroll (Michael), Brendan Alex (Sonya), Ryan Betzler (Benjamin Connor), and Brooke Harmon (Brian); eight great grandchildren, Olivia and Laina Schworer, Nora, Charlotte, and Emilia Carroll, Sawyer and Duncan Alex, and River Harmon; a much loved sister, Bonnie L. Ziegler; a brother, Estyle K. Huffman; an angel of a caregiver, Samantha Murdock; and numerous beloved sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and their families.
She was also preceded in death by seven siblings; two sons-in-law; and several sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law.
Family will receive friends at a memorial service at 10 a.m. July 13 at the Leesburg Presbyterian Church in Leesburg, Virginia. Interment with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery will follow at a later.
Memories and expressions of appreciation for her life are welcome and may be sent in her name to Vicki Gasperini, 287 Jones Lane, Heathsville, Virginia 22473.
