Elizabeth (Betsy) H. Holmes died at age 93 on Saturday, March 2nd. She was born in Baltimore, and was preceded by four older brothers: Gere, Jack, Tom and Tono. She leaves a sister, Mary Ball Howkins, a resident of Dighton, Massachusetts, and Mary Ball’s daughter, Thea Howkins Knotts, of San Pablo, California.

Betsy, born in 1930, was an early professional woman. On the tails of WWII, she worked for Radio Free Europe, an informational arm of the CIA. She subsequently worked as an editor for a president of Northeastern University, Asa Smallidge Knowles, and then as writer and editor, in a husband and wife team, of a grammar workbook series for D C Heath and Company publisher.

She was a Zen Buddhist by belief. Betsy and her husband, a Zen teacher and English professor, decorated their winter holiday tree with tiny buddhas to celebrate the season.

Betsy and her husband lived in Hendersonville for many decades, writing and walking miles upon miles, up and down mountains, daily. You may have encountered them on your walks.