Elizabeth Alexander

MADISON - Elizabeth "Betty" Vinson Alexander, age 90, passed away on December 29, 2016 at Agrace HospiceCare in Madison, Wisconsin from complications following a fall. Betty was born on July 12, 1926 in Glendale, California to Ernie and Florence (Webb) Vinson. When she was nineteen years old, she met her husband, Lt. John W. Alexander, who came to Los Angeles to find a publisher for Flight Quarters, the story of his World War II ship USS Belleau Wood, which he had written at the request of the ship's captain. He heard Betty singing a solo in church and proposed to her a few weeks later. They married in 1946 and came to Madison, Wisconsin, where she finished her college degree in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin while he earned his Ph.D. and then was invited onto the faculty as professor of Economic Geography.

Betty was a warm and gracious host, welcoming many students into their home for evening dessert and Bible study. Her hospitality was exemplary. After her husband left the UW in 1965 to become President of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, she continued to welcome into her home IVCF staff and students, who called her "Mrs. A."

Betty left an impression of kindness on everyone she met, making everyone feel very special. She cared deeply about her family, was supportive of her husband, and keenly interested in her children, grandchildren and friends. One of her grandchildren said, "She was a great listener. When she asked you a question, you felt listened to. She would always want to ask me how I was and then let me tell her stories." Another said, "I always enjoyed staying with her over vacation break when I was in college. I'd arrive at two in the morning and just come into the house and go upstairs and fall asleep on the third floor. I'd see her the next morning. It was always very relaxing. She was a very relaxing person to be around."

Betty enjoyed music, family history, books, art, interior design, and current events. She was curious and willing to learn from her grandchildren about 21st century technology. One of them said, "Once I showed her how to use Google Earth. She got on her computer in Madison, I got on mine in California and talked her through it, and we looked together at the area she grew up in California. She was absolutely amazed to be able to walk down her childhood street on the computer! That is my single favorite highlight of Grandma in the last ten years. We laughed so much. We were on the phone for an hour."

Betty loved watching the Packers and the Badgers. She would always try to watch the Rose Bowl with friends and family (the Rose Bowl is played each year at a stadium only minutes from where she grew up). She'd watch intently and clap her hands and say "Oh, good!" whenever something went well. She never played a second of football in her life but was a diehard football fan in her eighties. She followed her grandchildren's sports and went to their games. For someone who never grew up with organized sports, that was admirable.

Dignified, poised, impeccably dressed and always a lady, Betty redefined "aging," carrying herself beautifully right up to the end. She realized that we all need beauty in order to live, and she sought to create it and pass it on wherever she went. She loved homemaking and creating an aesthetically pleasing home for people to enjoy. A lover of nature and beauty, she was in tune with their spiritual aspects, going outside in every season to discover things in nature. These were things that she appreciated and she saw God in them. She would wrap gifts in a special way, often slipping an interesting twig or sprig of evergreen into the bow. In her older years, she traveled with scissors and a plastic bag in her car, to stop and cut otherwise overlooked sprays of grasses in the fields along the highways, which she arranged in vases as works of art. While living at Oakwood, she would take many walks along Mineral Point, picking up trash and picking weeds. From the weeds, she made tiny bouquets that were exquisite, explaining, "Can you believe that God made each one of these so different? They're just weeds, but he made them so beautiful!"

Betty filtered all she loved through the lens of a deeply spiritual faith in God. She had a heart for God and desired to please God. She knew the truth of Thomas Merton's prayer: "I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing . . " Toward the end of her life, she would close almost every meeting with someone in prayer. She initiated prayers with those who came to say goodbye in her final weeks, giving them a blessing although they thought they were coming to bless her. She was scheduled to make a year-end move to Boston to live with her daughter and husband, but it turned out she was making her way to glory in heaven.

Betty was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ her whole life. She spent most of her adult life in Wisconsin where her ancestors had lived. She was preceded in death by her husband in 2002. Her five children are living and have their own families. She is survived by her four children, John, Lynne, Mary, Doug, and an adopted daughter Paulyn, as well as their spouses and her beloved grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Oakwood Village University Woods, Resurrection Chapel, at 11:00am on Tuesday, January 3rd.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Betty's honor to Cedar Campus, a Christian retreat and training center of InterVarsity that she and her husband deeply loved: https://cedar.intervarsity.org/donating


Cress Funeral Service
3610 Speedway Road, Madison
(608) 238-3434