Betty Sue Nance Bryan

Glover Funeral Home 1468 Hartford Highway, Dothan, AL 36301

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Posted by: Glover Funeral Home
[email protected]
(334) 699-3888
Date: Mar 01 2013 4:24 PM

Mrs. Betty Sue Nance Bryan, age 89, of Hoover, AL died Thursday, February 28, 2013 at her residence after an extended illness.

 

Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday March 4, 2013 at the Providence Baptist Church Cemetery in Clayhatchee with Dr. Sigurd F. Bryan officiating and Kendall Glover directing.

 

The family will be receiving friends in the church fellowship hall following the Graveside service.  In Lieu of flowers the family request that contributions be made to the Cloverdale Baptist Church, 806 Dexter Street, Dothan, AL. 36301.

 

Betty Sue was a life long learner.  After high school she graduated with a BA from Thomas A. Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.  She also earned a degree from the Ernest Williams School of Music in New York City.  She studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where she met her husband Wayne Bryan who received his ThD there.  Some years later when she and Wayne lived in Baton Rouge, LA, she completed her MA at LSU and completed her PhD at the International Bible College and Seminary.

 

A musician (violin, piano, voice), composer, poet, writer, TV- Betty Sue was a multi-talented woman and she used her talents to serve the Lord.  She began her study of violin at the age of 5.  She shared all of these talents as she served as the pastor's wife and the first Minister of Music at the Cloverdale Baptist Church in Dothan.  Her husband, Dr. Wayne D. Bryan was the church's founder and first pastor.

 

Through the years Betty Sue taught untold numbers of students violin, piano, and organ, but she not only taught others to play these instruments, she also played these instruments in churches, symphonies, homes, weddings, and various music programs.  She and Wayne also produced a weekly TV program.  Wayne led a Bible study and she provided the music using various instruments.  She many times sang the songs that she had written and composed.  And, of course, she accompanied herself.

 

Betty Sue always looked for opportunities to serve the Lord.  In these last years in Birmingham they led worship in a number of nursing and retirement homes.  They especially enjoyed their years at Rocky Ridge Retirement Center.  For many years Wayne led a worship service there with Betty Sue providing the music.  She felt loved and cared for by the Rocky Ridge staff and residents.  The last years of their 62 years of marriage were spent at Rocky Ridge.

 

Betty Sue and Wayne had no children, but when they lived in Dothan they met a young child and her mom in a restaurant where the mom worked.  Being a single mom she often had to bring Priscilla to work with her.  Often Priscilla slept her first hours of the night at the restaurant.  Wayne and Betty Sue became very attached to her and would often take her home with them where she would get those first hours of sleep in their home.  After work, her mom would pick her up.  Through the years Priscilla had more and more opportunities to spend time with Betty Sue and Wayne.  They loved Priscilla and were like second "parents" to her through the years- so much so that she still calls them "Mom and Dad".  And they looked upon her as their "daughter".  Priscilla now has her own family- her husband and two young adult children, but she has never forgotten Wayne and Betty Sue's love for her.  She brought untold joy to their home and lives.

 

We thank friends and family who have known and loved Betty Sue and Wayne.  We thank the Amedysis Hospice staff, Angels of Mercy, and especially Wanda Long and Leonia Stevenson, her two faithful sitters for 19 months.  We have learned even more about loving others from these who have lived it before us.

 

She is survived by sister, Patsy Arndt(John), Reading, PA.; brother, Harry Schawm (Joan), Reading, PA.; brother-in-law, Dr. Sigurd F. Bryan (Sara), Birmingham;  sister-in-law, Lillian McDonald, Talladega;  nephew, Johnny Bryan (Bonnie), Dothan; Numerous nieces & nephews and great nieces and nephews and Priscilla Wilson Driver, (who was like a daughter), Dothan.

         

 

Glover Funeral Home of Dothan is in charge of the arrangements, (334) 699-3888.  Please sign the guestbook on line at www.gloverfuneral.com.

 

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