A Tribute to Don & Judy Betts: Their Lives and His Poetry

De: Stan Paregien

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Don and Judy Betts are Florida treasures. She was born in Miami and he was born and reared on Longboat Key (parallels the shores of Bradenton down to Sarasota). Each has made significant contributions to their community and their church. She worked in a bank in Sarasota, then - with kids at home - she became a school bus driver, and then a mortgage loan officer. She also became an advocate for abused children, working with the courts, lawyers and parents. He organized a "Night Out" program where parents could bring their children to a church building and leave them for 2 or 3 hours to have time together.

He is a walking-talking almanac of old-time Florida history. His father was the chief horticulturalist for John Ringling of the Ringling Brothers Circus fame. And Don grew up on a virtually deserted southern end of Longboat Key. He and his siblings spent their time fishing and/or swimming in the Gulf of Mexico on the west side of the Key or in Sarasota Bay on the east side. He marked the year of 1947, the year of his 15th birthday, by swimming in the Gulf every day of the year. Every single day.

Betts served in the U.S. Navy, mainly in Virginia and Florida. Later, he did whatever he had to do to get by. He worked as a clerk in a hardware store, as a hand at a dairy (often working more than 100 hours per week), climbed poles for Florida Power & Light Co., and was a ranger at Myakka River State Park. Then he was a police officer in Phoenix, AZ., and in Sarasota. He became a V.P. in a bank in Bradenton, then worked for the Florida Farm Bureau as an insurance agent, and then worked for the Bureau of Soil & Water Conservation. He has plenty of stories to tell, and he shares many of them in this book.

Don had written very little of anything until at the age of 82 he started scratching out his thoughts in a poetry format. Today, he has created hundreds of poems. He is also now the author of five books (available in paperback and ebook formats), most of which are recollections or stories he created about Old Florida back before 1900. Stan Paregien conceived this tribute volume in honor of them and, especially, as a birthday gift for him. Don Betts will turn 90 on Feb. 9, 2022,