Kenneth Poe Funeral Services

January 19, 2025

CHARLOTTE – Elizabeth Buchan Pierce – “Betsy” to her wide universe of friends and family -- died peacefully on Sunday, January 19, 2025, at age 80. 

Betsy was born in Mullins, S.C. and was graduated from Charlotte’s Queens College in 1966. During her Queens years, she met many girls who became her lifelong friends.

She began her teaching career in Atlanta and returned to Charlotte in 1973 where she spent the next 25 years teaching 12^th grade English at Harding High School and Providence High School until her 1998 retirement. 

Betsy was diagnosed with polio when she was 18 months old, and her doctors told her parents she would never walk.  Those doctors did not know Betsy’s strength and determination.  By age four, Betsy was walking with a brace.  Her parents encouraged her to do her best to do what other children her age were doing, and she did.  She learned to climb trees and to swim in the Little Pee Dee River.  She once joined friends to climb a tall ladder so they could get a view from the top of a neighborhood drugstore.

Betsy was soon walking without braces or crutches, and she walked independently until age 78. She refused to let polio steal her energy or diminish her love of teaching, her love of her many friends, her love of family, or her deep love of Tom Pierce, her husband of five decades. 

Betsy was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in 2007.  With her characteristic toughness, she fought it back into remission several times and lived a full and active life of friendships, family, and travel.  When the cancer renewed the battle in the fall of 2024, it finally prevailed.

Betsy’s favorite place was any of South Carolina’s beautiful beaches.  She loved the ocean, the sand, and the coast’s range of shopping possibilities.  Betsy loved all music, preferably played loudly, but “beach music” spoke to her South Carolina soul.  She also loved the North Carolina mountains. 

For 31 years, the highlight of the Pierces’ year was DERBY – their annual Kentucky Derby Party.  Betsy loved everything about it: the planning, the invitations, the food, the flowers, and choosing her dress. Most important was the excitement of hosting her friends, all together, at the same time. And her friends loved it, too.

When a few women arrived wearing their grand, showy Derby hats, and men strutted a bit, dressed as Kentucky Dandies, she just howled with joy.  Everyone enjoyed their one-dollar bets and at least one mint julep. The Pierces reminisced about each Derby until it was time to get ready for the next one.  DERBY just tickled Betsy’s soul.

After retiring, she and Tom traveled widely – Italy and Alaska were favorites -- but that English Literature teacher could not rest until she had visited the Globe Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, and a few select castles in England and Scotland.  A voracious reader, she was particularly inspired by stories of women active in the World War II French Resistance.  And she was never shy about assigning her friends her favorite recent read.

Another love was flowers.  A small stem or a big bouquet brought her equal joy.  And that affection for flowers lured her to Holland for the spring bulbs and to Carlsbad, California’s ranunculus – her favorite -- Flower Fields.  

And there were her and Tom’s critters who allowed the Pierces to be servants to the likes of puppies Dickens, Oscar, and Scruffy and many cats.  She spoiled every one of them.  All of the dogs loved her, and some of her cats did, too.  All of these much-loved pets are buried in the Pierce backyard pet cemetery each with its own memorial tombstone.

Most of all, Betsy was a human magnet.  Her special gift in life was making friends and nurturing those friendships.  She would quickly engage with others in any place and any situation, and many folks she met became fast friends.  Many of those close and lasting friendships have spanned her life.  She nurtured these friendships with her warmth, her frequent visits, calls, texts, beautifully hand-written notes and her famous “sercies” – small, thoughtful, surprise gifts.  

Betsy loved her growing-up years in the small tobacco town of Mullins among her many cousins, and she was modest about the many honors she won in high school there.  When anyone asked her about those, she would often say that her favorite high school memory was being chosen as Homecoming Queen by the football team.  Then she always added, with a smile and a twinkle in her eye, that it might have been helpful that her boyfriend was the team captain.  

Betsy adored her large family, especially doting on the next generations of children, teens, and young adults. 

Betsy was engaged in several community activities. Her favorite was her role as a Make-a-Wish facilitator.  She focused on everything necessary to make a child’s “wish” become a reality.  

Left to cherish memories of Betsy are her husband, Tom; sisters, Susan Buchan Pearson (Ken) and Catherine Buchan Herndon (Mike) and brother, Charles Butler Maxwell (Barbara); stepsisters, Adelaide Maxwell Grattan (George) and Ainslie Maxwell Reynolds (Jeff); Cynthia Thompson Rudolph; and Betsy’s large extended family and many close, loving friends.  Her mother, Clara Webb Buchan Maxwell died on January 20, 2025, at age 104, one day after Betsy passed away.  Betsy was predeceased by her father James Robertson Buchan; her stepfather, William James Maxwell; sister, Mary Buchan Graham, and brother, William James Maxwell, Jr. 

A celebration of Betsy’s life is scheduled for 11:00 AM, Saturday, February 8, 2025, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 E. Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC.  The family will receive friends following the service in the Welcome Center at the church.  

Betsy requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Nourish Up, 901 Carrier Drive, Charlotte, NC 28216 or Salvation Army Center of Hope (Women and Children Shelter), 534 Spratt St., Charlotte, NC 28206 or Charlotte Rescue Mission, 915 W. First St., Charlotte, NC 28202 or Make-a-Wish Central & Western North Carolina, 6324 Fairview Rd Suite 500, Charlotte, NC 28210 or one’s charity of choice.

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences may be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.