Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Proctor Reeves, 87, died Saturday, January 10, 2026, with her two sons and her older sister by her side.


Betty grew up in Olanta, South Carolina, where she learned and embraced the very best of the south: grace, humility, hospitality, welcome, and truth. She was the first to pull up another chair, fill a tea glass, or otherwise make another - whether stranger, family or friend - feel like they belonged, because they always did in her eyes. Grace and hospitality weren't so much what she did as they were how she lived, who she was.


Betty earned her bachelor's degree from Winthrop University, the third generation of Proctor women to do so. Later she enrolled at Duke University in the Master of Christian Education program, building on a life already shaped by faith, service, and resolve. At Duke, she met Joe Reeves, a Master of Divinity candidate, who would become her husband of 55 years. Devoted to their faith and to each other, they married in 1961 on a sweltering August afternoon in Elizabeth's hometown church.


Her Christian faith was never an add-on to her life; rather it was her life's defining, pulsating force, like a river that runs unceasingly through. She served as a youth education director, worked as a social worker in inner-city North Carolina, and later became a registered nurse, caring for ICU patients in their toughest hour. In her personal life, however, she never clocked out. She comforted and listened. She laughed and cared and noticed the wishes and needs of others. She made others feel a part. Betty was deeply connected to her church and her community--singing in the choir, visiting shut-ins, serving on committees, and showing up for the quiet work that keeps a church going. At home, she devoted herself to her family, particularly to her sons in whom she strived every day to instill the same values that so long defined her life lived well.


She is survived by her two sons, Stack of Shelby and Shawn of Atlanta; five grandchildren, Chloe, Carter, Eavan, Stack, and Connor; her sisters Carol McPhail of Shelby and Joyce Proctor (Amos) of Petersburg, Virginia; her brother William Proctor (Kim) of Olanta, South Carolina; and her sister-in-law, Renee Proctor of Florence, South Carolina.


A memorial service is planned for January 23, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. in the sanctuary of Central United Methodist Church in Shelby, followed by a reception in the church's fellowship hall.


Online condolences can be shared at www.cecilmburtonfuneralhome.com.


Cecil M. Burton Funeral Home & Crematory is honored to serve the family.