Betty “Booi” Bryan CraftsBetty “Booi” Bryan Crafts transitioned to glory on the morning of July 29th in the company of her children, after a brief illness. Booi was loved by many and loved big as she entertained hundreds of her Athens friends at her legendary parties.
She was born Betty Bryan at the family home on Adams Street in Huntsville. She became Booi very quickly as her older sister could not say Betty, but she could say Booi, and it just stuck. One of seven siblings, she lived an idyllic childhood at her parent’s family farm, “The Bluff”, one of the old Anderson farms in Limestone County. Later moving to the family’s city house on North Madison Street, she was surrounded by many of her lifelong friends including Elizabeth Bolton Patton and Judy Gilbert Johnson. Some of her most treasured memories were her antics as a pledge and sister of Pi Beta Sigma sorority from 1949-1954.
The consummate room mother for her children’s grade school years, Booi was a homemaker until 1989 when she was selected as the housemother for Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Auburn University. At Auburn she was twice selected as the national housemother of the year. In 1998, she retired and returned to her old city house in the Houston Historic District where she lived until her death.
Booi was preceded in death by her parents, Dr E. W. Bryan and Susie Anderson Bryan, her husband Robert Frank Crafts, and siblings Dr William J. Bryan, Mary Francis Holland, Joyce Bryan Maples, Pete Anderson Bryan, John Hugely Bryan, and Annie Bryan Siltanen.
She is survived by her children Price Crafts of Atlanta, Alice Crafts of Nashville, and Frank Crafts of Athens, Maizie & Tab, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.
The family appreciates your prayers, well wishes, calls and visits. While there is no public service or visitation planned, there will be a celebration of life in the fall.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to Creating Hope for Paws or your favorite pet advocacy organization.
