Betty Jane Pierce

Betty Jane Pierce (Brown) of Chapel Hill, NC, formerly of Vero Beach, FL and Tryon, NC, died on October 5, 2026 at the age of 95. She was a resident of The Cedars community and The DuBose Health Center.

Betty was born on July 4th, 1931 to A.M. and Gwen Brown in Gadsden, Alabama. With two working parents and playing second fiddle to her beloved big brother Mickey, Betty enjoyed flying under the radar as a kid - spending summers at the farm with Mama, her maternal grandmother, taking trips to Chattanooga in the rumble seat, swimming in the Coosa River, and going to the pictures with her best friend Nell Rose.

After graduating from Gadsden High as a forty-niner, Betty enlisted in the Air Force on a dare. She survived basic at Randolph AFB near San Antonio and then served as an Airman working for Base Petroleum at Lowery AFB in Colorado. When asked about her time in the military, Betty reported much dancing at the officer’s club.

Betty was honorably discharged in December of 1952. The GI Bill allowed her to join Mickey at Auburn where she landed the vocalist job with the Auburn Knights, trying out at the suggestion of a friend. She graduated in 1956 with a degree in Applied Art. She began her career in commercial art at the Pat Dodson Ad Agency in Pensacola, FL. A few years later Betty was working in Atlanta where she met Lewis Southern, of Kernersville, NC. They married in 1962.

Betty and Lew had 3 girls, Charlotte, Susannah, and Scarlet. Betty cherished being a stay-at-home mom. After living in Roslyn Heights, NY and Columbus, OH, the family settled in the northern suburbs of Atlanta in 1970. During her Atlanta years, Betty played tennis, took up stained glass, learned guitar, drew caricatures of all her friends, took gymnastics with her girls, and did artwork for the PTA. Most mornings she jogged at the middle school track with friends. She taught her girls how to dance the Charleston and sing Chattanooga Choo Choo. Betty was known to burst into song and/or dance while carpooling, at the grocery, or in the mall. This refreshing lack of self-consciousness was excruciating for at least one of her tween daughters. After coming home with a pair of the ugliest “running shoes” her girls had ever seen, she began running road races like The Peachtree Road Race 10K. You could say she was a bit of a health nut, and loved to go to the little health food store in Sandy Springs, bringing home such delicacies as wheat germ and millet.

After divorcing in 1982, Betty briefly returned to the workforce, working several part-time jobs that allowed her to get on board the computer revolution and support her family. Late in that same year, one of her jogging buddies, Ed Swiedler, introduced her to his brother-in-law, George “Bus” Vosburgh of Tryon, NC, a town doctor and WWII veteran. Betty had found her soul mate. She and Scarlet moved to NC. Betty and Bus filled their days with music, family, friends, and sports. Both were accomplished singers and Bus laid down the chords on the piano. Bus was a human jukebox and would have easily won big on Name That Tune. Some of their favorites were True Love, Always, Try to Remember, and How do you Keep the Music Playing. They were often joined by Bus’s sister Carol Swiedler who sang with Bing Crosby. The large and loud Swiedler family, welcomed Betty and her girls into their circle.

Bus, an avid fan and coach of track and field, found himself married to a natural athlete. They began journeying across the southeast, the country, and the world, competing, first in road racing and then Masters Track and Field. In 1987, Betty ran in 32 road races and won her age group in 19. She broke NC state records (age group 55-59) in the 10K, 15K, and 10 miles.

Betty then sprinted, hurdled, jumped, and threw her way to winning 31 national championships in 12 track and field events from age 57 - 61. In 1991 she set world records in the heptathlon and 300m hurdles for the 60-64 age group. She set 3 more in 1992 for indoor long jump, triple jump, and the 400m. Her heptathlon world record stood for 11 years. Along the way, they collected friends, saw the country, and stopped in to see family in NC GA, AL, TX and CA. Betty made the pages of Sports Illustrated and USA Today.

In addition to all the singing and running, Betty was a lifelong reader and learner. She loved snuggling up with an historical novel or biography. She gobbled up history, nutrition, science, and nature, subscribing to Science News, Smithsonian, Nutrition Action and others. She would send articles and give subscriptions to everyone she met. You did not want to be in a hurry to get through a museum with Betty because she liked to read all the little plaques. She was also game for adopting the latest technology, going through a couple Palm Pilots before getting an iPhone. She loved doing email and artwork on her MacBook. However, Facebook was a bridge too far and operating a smart TV was a crapshoot.

In 1997, Betty and Bus moved to Vero Beach, FL. There they quickly made dear friends who gathered for daily 6am runs that ended with a dip in the ocean. Their beach buddies - Peter, Debb, David, Dr John, DeDe, John S, Norm, Stuart, Dorothy, Rob and others - laughed, argued, debated, and solved the world’s problems. Those close friends and the Swiedlers, helped Betty weather the loss of Bus in 2001.

After a few years, John S introduced her to Leo Pierce, of Philadelphia, a friend of John’s from AA who had also lost his spouse. The plan was no love, no romance, and no marriage. Just a friend to go places with. Turns out, Betty had met another beautiful man and they were married in 2004. Betty hung up her track clothes for something more presentable and they were off! …to shows, lectures, parties, cruises, tournaments, and galas. Leo was rumored to be the only Democrat in John’s Island and Betty took to his interests in local philanthropy and national politics. They even had a life-size cutout of President Obama in the living room, gifted by her favorite Republican running buddy.

Leo passed away in 2012 and once again, Betty got by with a little help from her friends (and family). The running circle had morphed into the Panera gang of Peter, Debb, David, Dr John, Alan, Heidi, Rick, Kathy, and Carol. In 2014 she and Susannah took a “Driving Miss Betty” road-trip through Savannah, Atlanta, Gadsden, and Asheville, stopping to visit family and friends along the way. In 2015, she attended Susannah’s wedding in NC and then left Florida to be closer to her daughters. She lived with Charlotte and her family for a year in Keller, TX where she learned tai chi at the Senior Center. Then in 2016, she settled in Chapel Hill, NC near Susannah and her husband Grayson. At 85, ping pong became her new sport and way to make friends. She also made trips to visit Scarlet in Taos, NM and her childhood friend Nell Rose on Long Island. In 2017 she attended her first protest march. Bus and Leo would have been proud. Though her final years were challenging, she loved the attention from her daughters, their friends and the staff of her retirement community.

Betty was preceded in death by her daughter, Charlotte Arrocha of Keller, TX, who passed away in 2020 from breast cancer. She also survived her beloved husbands, George (Bus) Vosburgh of Tryon, NC and Leo Pierce of Philadelphia and Vero Beach, FL, her brother, Mickey Brown of Palo Alto, CA and her nephew, Steven Brown of Sunnyvale, CA.

Betty is survived by her daughters, Susannah Southern of Durham, NC and Scarlet Southern of Taos, NM, her grandchildren, Sarah Arrocha of Frankfort, KY and Tito Arrocha of Woburn, MA, son-in-law Grayson Baur of Durham, NC, Charlotte’s partner, Jaime Hunter of Keller, TX, nieces Grace Brown of Ketchum, ID and Connie Silver of Redwood City, CA, grand nieces Sarah Brady, Claire Brady, and Tyra Norlander, grand nephew Brant Norlander, and cousins Nancy Lazard of Savannah, GA, Beverly Rudder of Fort Worth,TX and Marilyn MacDonald of Pensacola, FL.