MARY ELIZABETH 'BETTY' SHAW

August 24, 1925-May 16, 2015
Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Shaw passed away peacefully at the Morgan City Health Care Center & Rehabilitation Center, Saturday, May 16, 2015. She was 89.
Our beloved Aunt Betty, “Nanny”, was born Aug. 24, 1925, in Patterson, Louisiana. She was the middle of three children born to John Berwick Shaw Jr. and Camille Marie LeBlanc Shaw.
She spent her earliest years on St. Mary’s Plantation on Bayou Teche. She graduated from Franklin High School. Betty attended Pacific Music Camp in Stockton, California. She received a scholarship to attend Southwestern Louisiana Institute in 1942. Betty attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette. She was a 70-year member of the Tri-Sigma Sorority of Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now called the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. She attended Columbia University in New York City where she received her Master’s Degree in Music in 1953. In her later years, she made her home in Berwick on the Atchafalaya River.
Her passion and proficiency in performance music and vocal choirs was a true gift she shared with friends, family, students and parishioners. She loved playing the clarinet. Betty taught music at Jennings High School in Assumption Parish from 1948-1951. She was also the band director at a consolidated high school in Napoleonville, Louisiana. Betty did a tap dance at Lake Charenton in St. Mary Parish at a Fourth of July celebration, while her aunt, Loretta Shaw Beaullieu, played the piano.
In her later years, she enjoyed watching “Dancing with the Stars” as well as “American Idol”. Music was her way to connect, inspire and relax. Betty adored her older brother Billy’s piano- and accordion-playing skills.
Betty worked in the insurance profession beginning in the 1950s to the 1980s for the Violet T. Scott Insurance Agency in Berwick. Her skills were profound. Betty and her boss, Violet, enjoyed traveling to Hawaii, Mexico City, Canada, and Rio de Janeiro. She and a dear friend, Elizabeth Romero, traveled to London and Paris in 1997.
As much as she enjoyed traveling the world, Betty spent most of her life devoted to her parents, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, and many beloved family and friends throughout Louisiana. She adored animals and took great delight in her dogs and cats. She enjoyed feeding and watching many colorful birds in her back yard, especially cardinals. She selflessly devoted her life to the welfare and comforts of beloved family, friends, and strangers.
Betty Shaw was devoutly Catholic and spent countless hours with her family at St. Stephen Catholic Church of Berwick. She actively participated in the St. Anne’s Altar Society, served on the church bereavement committee, as well as her work at the St. Anne’s Thrift Store. From 1973 to 1975, Betty served as Choir Director at St. Stephen Catholic Church, imparting her love of liturgical hymns at weekly Mass.
She is survived by her cousins, Loretta Beaullieu Richard of Lafayette, and Elton Beaullieu of Lafayette; her nieces, Anne Shaw Barnaby of Montana and Susan Shaw (Jim Nickel) of Baton Rouge; and nephews, Mark Shaw (Danielle Plauche’) of New Orleans, Scott Shaw (Jeanne Breaux) of Houma, and Stephen Shaw (Carol Smidt) of California. Margaret “Punkin” Gaidry Shaw of Houma, Bernard Breaux of Houma, Andree Breaux of Shreveport. Dear friends, Sally Guidroz and family members, Rollan, Kelly, Wendy, and Amanda; and Dale and Judy Tholen of Berwick.
She was preceded in death by her parents, John Berwick Shaw Jr., and Camille Marie LeBlanc Shaw; brothers, Granville “Cookie” Bernard Shaw, John Berwick “Billy” Shaw III; former sister-in-law, Claire Wurzlow Shaw; cousins, Sybil Shaw and Gloria Shaw Doll; and grandmother, Naomi Broussard Shaw.
The Shaw family is deeply grateful to the doctors, nurses and staff at the Morgan City Health Care Center & Rehabilitation Center for their dedicated and compassionate care of Betty Shaw. A Funeral Mass is planned for Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, at 1 p.m. at St. Stephen Catholic Church, 3217 Second Street, Berwick, Louisiana 70342.