Bettye Louise Stickley

Bettye Louise Stickley, 97, of Amarillo, died on Tuesday, November 5 at her home. Services will be at 2 PM Friday, November 8, at the Rector Funeral Home Osage Chapel. Graveside services will immediately follow at Memorial Park Cemetery, 6969 I-40 East in Amarillo. Arrangements are by Rector Funeral Home Osage Chapel 2800 S. Osage. Bettye was born on August 6, 1922, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Madelyn and Chester Evans. They divorced when she was very young, and Bettyes mother married B.M. Goff, who raised Bettye and loved her as his own. During the depression, Bettyes parents operated a traveling show. She often traveled with them around the country, performing tap dance routines and acting in comedy sketches. As a young woman, Bettye helped her father run his business, an artificial limb company. She later met the love of her life, Clyde Stickley on a blind date, and in 1956 they were married. For 63 years, they remained devoted to each other. Throughout Bettyes health struggles, Clyde stayed by her side and took care of her, just as he had promised in their wedding vows. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bettye worked at the YWCA, teaching swimming lessons and exercise classes. She later became the Health Education Director there. Not only was she credited with teaching thousands of children in Amarillo to swim, but she also helped create a program offering free swimming lessons for low-income children across the city. After her retirement from the YWCA, she and Clyde partnered in a photography business called Stickley Photo. They took photos at dozens of weddings, family reunions, and other local events in the Panhandle for nearly two decades. Bettye was also active in the Amarillo Photographic Society with Clyde, and not only helped judge photos on the local, national, and international levels, she won several awards herself for her photography work. She loved socializing and traveling and was active in local United Transportation Union events. Bettye was preceded in death by her son, Dennis Stickley in 2017. She is survived by her husband Clyde Stickley; her daughter, Glenda Taylor of Amarillo; four grandchildren, Joshua Rudd, Elizabeth Duerr, and Rowdy Pate, all of Amarillo; and Victoria Winfrey and her husband John of Amsterdam; four great-grandchildren, Phoenix Rudd, Orlando Rudd, Kai Duerr, and Bobby Duerr; her beloved sister-in-law, Marie Stickley, and many nieces, nephews, special