Ancestors

Bettie Jo Cummings

Bettie Jo Cummings was born on 30 January 1944 in Richland Parish, in the cotton country of northeast Louisiana. Her family's home was Holly Ridge, a small community east of Rayville, and her obituary called her a native of Holly Ridge. She was called Betty. Her parents were John Wilson Cummings, Sr., and Marvell Marie Harrell, a girl from Carthage in Leake County, Mississippi, who was eighteen when Bettie was born.

She had a large family of brothers and sisters. Her brothers Jay W. Cummings and Bobbie Joe Cummins carried her father's name. Bobbie Joe was born at Monroe in December 1951 and died there on Christmas Day, eight days old. Her mother later married L. H. Parker, a house painter from Diboll, Texas, and Bettie's younger brothers and sisters included Roy, Tommy Roy, Freida Mae, Alice, Gladys and Theresa Ann Parker. Myrtle Mae and Cheryl were sisters as well, and Cheryl died in 2003.

On 11 June 1965 Bettie married Robert Wayne Travis, a young man from Mississippi who was born five days before her and who made his career in the Army. Their daughter Judy Lynn Travis was born at San Antonio, Texas, on 24 January 1969 and died there on 16 March, seven weeks old. She was buried in Union Cemetery, at the foot of the grave of Robert's aunt, Mary Rowell Robertson. The marriage ended on 4 January 1973.

Bettie spent her later life in Melville, a small town on the Atchafalaya River in St. Landry Parish. She worked for Speedy Junction Inc. and retired from there. Her husband at the end of her life was Douglas Naquin.

Bettie died at her home in Melville on Monday, 8 August 2011, at the age of sixty-seven. Her funeral was held on Thursday, 11 August, at eleven in the morning, in the chapel of the Melancon Funeral Home in Opelousas. She was buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery at Melville. Her stone carries a carved angel holding the name Travis, and below it "Bettie J., Jan. 30, 1944, Aug. 8, 2011."

She was survived by her mother, Marvell Marie Parker, by her husband, by four daughters, Tammie, Ann, Kathy and Melissa, and by eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her father, her daughter Judy Lynn, two brothers, a sister and a granddaughter, Mallory Jordan Cummings, had died before her.

If Bettie Jo Cummings is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Bettie Jo Cummings (1944-2011)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/bettie-jo-cummings-1944-2011-c55325.