Betty Sue Higgins

Betty Sue Hendley Higgins, 87, formerly of Jonesboro, passed from this life on Thursday, October 12, 2023, in Columbia, Missouri. She was born in Dixie in rural Craighead Co. on November 4, 1935, to the late Pete and Flora Cox Hendley. Betty married the love of her life, Jerald W. Higgins, on July 10, 1955, and they raised three children together. She worked on the farm in childhood, then as a teen at the Corner Café in Paragould. When she met Jerald, she was working at Sterling’s, and their friends sang that he met his “million-dollar baby at the five and ten cent store.” Betty worked through to retirement as a secretary throughout the Mid-South as the family moved with Jerald’s promotions. In 1976, they made their permanent home in Jonesboro and joined Southwest Church. She found her career working as a secretary at Arkansas State University in the Audio-Visual Department and loved taking a college class each semester.

In retirement, she turned her love of bargains into a small business, and she visited with friends daily at Burger King on Caraway Rd. Betty was a member and leader in the A-State Secretary’s Club, Jonesboro Civitan, and Red Hat Ladies. Since 2019, Betty enjoyed her new neighbors and the dedicated staff at The Bluffs Nursing Home in Columbia.

More than anything, she loved her family. She was preceded in death by Jerald (1999), her parents, and elder sister Mary Johnson.

Betty is survived by her children, Terry Wayne (Carol) Higgins, Lisa Lauren (Cassandra) Higgins, and Thomas Blake (Beth) Higgins; grandchildren, Jacob, Hayley, John-Hayden, Daxton, Emily, Brad, Jordan, and Kaylie; great grandchildren Layla, Stella, Ozzie, Sunny, and Luna; sister, Katheryn Trostel; brother, Larry Hendley; and a large extended family of in-laws, cousins, nieces, nephews, and their children.

The family will receive friends Friday, October 20, 2023, from 12-1 PM at Heath Funeral Home in Paragould. The funeral will begin at 1 PM. Burial will follow in Greene County Memorial Gardens Cemetery.

Memorial contributions are suggested to The Bluffs Foundation, in support of Life Enrichment, 3105 Bluff Creek Drive, Columbia, Mo. 65201, or Jonesboro’s Southwest Church, in support of Promise House, https://swfamily.org/giving/.