Betty Joyce Allen Stevens, 71, Hampton, surrounded by all her loved ones, met her Lord and Savior and received her glorified body on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, at Johnson City Medical Center following a brief illness.
Betty was a native of Carter County. She was born and raised in the Dry Creek community and after she married settled in Hampton with her husband. She was the daughter of the late Ed and Martha Allen. She was also preceded in death by a sister, Judy Holtsclaw Hansford.
Betty had been employed through the years by Hermitage Nursing Home, Iodent Chemical, Eastside School, and retired from playing bass and writing songs with the Stevens Family bluegrass band that traveled all over the U.S. and played on the Grand Ole Opry many times. If there ever was a loving daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, or friend. Betty was it. She always showed so much love and gave so much to others.
Surviving Betty is her husband of 52 years, Douglas Stevens; her daughters, Beth Blackwell (Keith) and April Seiber (Rob); grandsons, Chase Blackwell, Drew Blackwell and Stone Seiber; her siblings, Barbara Hartley, Jimmy Allen and Trudy (Eddy) Tolley, plus all her nieces and nephews. Also surviving Betty is her best friend, Monica Odom, and some others who were like her children to her, Kristi Crow Smith, Jennifer Fleenor Sizemore, Gary Wayne Laws and Kimberly Laws.
Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, February 9, at Memorial Funeral Chapel, Elizabethton, followed by a celebration of life at 7 p.m. conducted by her “Little Preacher,” Rev. Gary Whitehead. The graveside service will be Monday, February 10, in the Stevens Cemetery, Oak Hill. Active pallbearers will be her grandsons, Stone Seiber, Chase Blackwell and Drew Blackwell, a friend who is like her son, Gary Wayne Laws, and her nephews, Dale Hartley and Dana Hartley. Honorary pallbearers will be Keith Blackwell, Peanut Stout and her church family at Fairview Freewill Baptist Church. Family and friends will assemble at the funeral home at 10:15 a.m. Monday to go in procession to the cemetery. The family would like to first thank the Lord Jesus for His grace and mercy through all this, the wonderful people at Hampton/Valley Forge VFD, Carter County EMS, and all the sweet nurses who cared for Betty during her final hours on the 2800 Wing of ICU at Johnson City Medical Center. Condolences may be sent to the family at our website, www.memorialfcelizabethton.com.
Memorial Funeral Chapel is serving the Stevens family.