MY SISTER BETTY

Ruby Elizabeth (Betty) McArthur

When I was growing up I thought that one of the most beautiful persons I knew was my sister Betty.  She was not just beautiful physically, she was beautiful in spirit.  I always enjoyed looking at the family picture taken when I was just a youngster.  In it Betty is resting her arm on me making me feel special.

Donnell,Mildred, David, Papa, Mama, Stainton, Mary, Irvin, Betty Johnny & Ginny

Betty was the only one of the nine brothers and sisters born outside of Meridian.  She was born March 5, 1917 in Missssippi City while Papa was on a construction project there and the family was living there temporarily.

Graduate Betty

After graduating from the Meridian High School she attended Meridian Junior College for a year
 or two. While in school in Meridian she worked as an Elevator Operator for the local Sears store where she experienced a lot of "ups and downs".

Betty spent her Junior and Senior years at Maryville College in Tennessee. During her senior year she was selected as "Barn-Warming" Queen, the big annual social event of the year.  She completed her B.A. degree with a major in Home Economics in 1941. It was there that she met her future husband Henry Millison who was a classmate.

Betty and Henry Leonard Millison

After Graduation at Maryville in 1941 she returned to Meridian and  worked as a Home Economist for a local service while Henry completed his BD degree at Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church of North America.

Betty and Henry were married in the McArthur home church: Central Presbyterian Church in Meridian Mississippi in 1944.


After living in the South up to this time she moved with Henry to the manse of the United Presbyterian Church in Greenville, PA. There she served as a well loved Pastor's wife.

Betty and Henry's only child Leonard Earl (Len) was born Jun. 8, 1946. I had the priviledge of visiting them in Greenville while I was a student in Princeton Seminary in 1948.

Betty and Len

Early in 1950 Betty, Henry, and Len came by our apartment in Louisville Presbyterian Seminary for a short visit.  This was the first time that Margaret had met them and the last time either of us saw Betty alive.

In March of 1950 I went to Washington DC for a conference.  When I returned to Louisville Margaret shared with me the shocking news of Betty's unexpected death.  She was in the doctor's office for a tonsillectomy.  When she was given a local anesthesia she suffered a reaction and died on the operating table.

Words cannot express the shock that we all experienced at that time, but God worked through all of this sorrow for His good purposes.  I am assured that it is not how long we live, but how we live that matters in this world.  The example Betty's life will live on.

 "--I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any power, neither height nor depth, no anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8: 38-39 (NIV)