Obituary: Betsy Wales, 1925-2024 

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• Courtesy
• Betsy Wales

Elizabeth Boyd Barclay Wales died on July 30, 2024, in Colchester, Vt. She was born in Riverton, N.J., on April 5, 1925.

The daughter of Therese Spackman and Richard D. Barclay, she was the youngest of four children. She attended Riverton Public School, Moorestown Friends School and Middlebury College (class of ‘46). She worked at the Country Store in Concord, Mass., for several years, and managed the store’s summer branch on Martha’s Vineyard. Later she was employed as a secretary in the Harvard alumni office and then in the M.I.T. English and History Department.

Betsy married Gilman O. Wales of Abington, Mass., in 1951. They first lived in Walpole, Mass., and then in Norwell, Mass., for 29 years. She and Ozzie raised four children. Betsy was active in the Norwell schools. She cochaired a state-mandated community school system evaluation and helped initiate the school volunteer program. She and Ozzie were instrumental in starting the American Field Service program in Norwell and hosted the first AFS student for the town, Christer Falldin, from Umea, Sweden. Betsy and Ozzie were charter members of the Norwell United Church of Christ, Congregational. Betsy helped to start the church-community nursery school.

Moving to Yarmouth, Maine, in 1984, allowed Betsy more time for her artistic gifts, and she studied at the University of Southern Maine and the Maine College of Art. She hosted several shows of her beautiful, sensitive watercolor paintings. As an active member of the Cumberland Congregational Church, Betsy started the Good Friday Walk fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity and also dedicated her energies to Bread for the World.

Betsy was a lifelong athlete, starring in track, basketball and field hockey, and she enjoyed recreational skiing. She played tennis into her eighties and loved shooting (toy) hoops in her assisted living apartment. She was a keen Scrabble player and wordsmith. Her family enjoyed her piano playing and her singing old tunes and invented songs. Betsy was nourished by the natural world and especially loved the water. She enjoyed ocean dips for as long as she could walk. Her quick humor and bright smile would lift your spirit and change your day.

Betsy’s husband, Ozzie, died in 2008. She was predeceased by her three siblings, Walter, Emily and Dick. Betsy and Ozzie are survived by their four children: Peter Wales and his wife, Lorna, of New Gloucester, Maine; Sally Wales and her husband, Steve Salls, of Burlington, Vt.; Joannie Wales and her partner, Leigh Steele, of Burlington, Vt.; Emily Wales and her husband, Geoff Dennis, of Little Compton, R.I. She also leaves behind three beloved grandchildren and their spouses: Anna Cottrell and her wife, Kris Rotondo; Jared and Tiana Wales; and Erika and Corey MacDonald. Betsy is also survived by five great-grandchildren and 20 wonderful nieces and nephews.

Her children are so grateful for Betsy’s 99 years of life and thank her special caregivers at the Landing in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and the Converse Home in Burlington, Vt., and deeply appreciate the skilled, compassionate care at the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vt.

A memorial service will be held at the United Church of Christ, Congregational in Norwell, Mass., on October 20, 2024, at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Friendship Home in Norwell, or Moorestown Friends School.