‘Gracious, giving, southern lady’ Betty Leeth Haynes dies at age 93

 

Betty Leeth Haynes, for decades one of Cullman County’s most vivacious and spirited personalities, has passed away at the age of 93.

A lifelong Alabama resident who moved, in her childhood, to Cullman County and never left, Haynes bore firsthand witness to some of the area’s most transformative historical moments — and, with plucky confidence and optimism, directly influenced many of them herself.

She was “an amazing woman and friend,” shared longtime friend Dr. Vicki Karolewics, president at Wallace State Community College where the on-campus performing arts theater is named in Haynes’ honor. “Her greatest attribute was the many ways in which she demonstrated her love for others.”

Never shy with strangers or friends alike, Haynes was affably accessible while never reluctant to plainly speak her mind in good faith. It was an endearing social trait that found expression through her lifelong love of pageants, as well as her locally well-known gift for directing weddings — an endeavor that earned her the persisting nickname “The Sergeant” from grateful attendees impressed by her upbeat efficiency.

“Betty was the most elegant gracious, giving, loving, southern lady I will ever know!” reflected longtime friend Jimmy Drake, one of four “special friends” (alongside Mary York, Kelly Gilchrist and Karolewics) mentioned by name in her obituary.

“I was honored to be listed as one of her special friends, but anyone who knew Betty knew that everybody she met was special to her,” said Drake. “No matter how rich or how poor, what they had or did not have, she genuinely cared. If you needed an outfit for some special event, she had it and loaned it willingly. And she didn’t offer you just one — she brought you multiple choices! If you needed advice for daily living, she was there to give it. If you needed an etiquette lesson, she was there to teach it. If you needed a prayer warrior, she would’ve prayed with you. If you just needed a smile, she was always there to give you one.”

The youngest of seven children born to Marvin and Henrietta Shaw Hooten, Haynes grew up at Holly Pond, where she played basketball and graduated as her class salutatorian, earning a scholarship to Sacred Heart. She entered her first pageant — the Miss Cullman County Strawberry Festival — in her teens. In her own words from a 2021 Times interview, Haynes said she “got the fever” for the pageant life … after initially being “coerced” into taking part in her first one.

Haynes’ “fever” for pageants would turn out to endure for decades. In addition to a host of local and statewide honors (The Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce’s Emma Marie Eddleman Citizenship Award, the Henry Casper Arnold Humanitarian Award from Cullman Regional, the “Olympic Gold Medal” for fundraising for Hospice of Cullman, and many more), Haynes continued to earn pageant recognition well into her 80s.

Haynes was crowned Ms. Senior Cullman County for 1997, the same year that saw her win the Ms. Senior Alabama pageant and finish in third place in the Ms. Senior America pageant. She penned the poem “I am a Senior American” for her talent presentation for the 1997 pageant season, and her original creation would go on to became an event staple: To this day, the poem serves as the adopted creed for the National Ms. Senior America Organization.

“Every year I’ve gone back to the national to do the poem onstage during the pageant, so I know a lot of the people involved there, and I love the program, because I think ‘we’ — people our age — it’s kind of like coming out to a party for them,” Haynes told The Times in 2016, after being named Honorary Ms. Senior America in Atlantic City. “And I feel like the poem has been important to the program. I told them that having it as the creed for the pageant was a bigger compliment than actually getting Ms. Senior America!”

Haynes passed away on Dec. 19, less than a week before this year’s arrival of one of her favorite holidays.

“She loved the Christmas season and the opportunity to wear her many lively and bright Christmas sweaters,” Karolewics recalled. “She showed love for others through entertaining, where you might enjoy her delicious red jello punch or Russian tea, and by delivering her specially prepared, deliciously thin sugar cookies that were decorated with red and green sugar sprinkles!

“She loved this community and poured herself into making it the best. She exemplified John 4:7-8: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, [and] everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  We all miss her so much, but I know she is dancing backward in high heels in Heaven!”

Born to Marvin and Henrietta Shaw Hooten in Birmingham on Feb. 15, 1931, Betty Jacqueline Hooten moved with her family to Holly Pond when she was still young. As her obituary states, she met Cal Leeth when she was a dental hygienist at the Bledsoe Clinic in Cullman. The two were married for 37 years until his death in 1988. While later directing a wedding in which he was the father of the bride, she met and eventually married Earnie Haynes, her husband of 33 years until his death in 2023.

Haynes possessed an inborn instinct for delivering candor with good will and grace, and remained proudly and vocally possessive of her beloved Cullman community throughout her uniquely productive life. “She genuinely loved her family, her community and everyone she came in contact with,” Drake said. “I will miss my dear friend so very much. It was an honor to me to be her friend.”

“I love Cullman. I think it’s the best place in the world,” Haynes told The Times in 2021, while reflecting on the gift of life itself with her own signature pith: ““Life is short,” she quipped. “I feel like everyone should have a shake at it.”

I AM A SENIOR AMERICAN

Who, Me? America…Americans…Senior Americans

These words grow sweeter every day And I know l identify in a special way!

When I think of the challenges we Seniors foresee, I’m overwhelmed and ask the question, “Who, Me!”

Am I ready for the Millennium and Computer Age

As I evaluate my life and turn a new page?

Well, the Lord blessed me with some talent, I’m thankful to say, I write poetry, make speeches and play the organ my way!

And there are a few other things I can do just to name a few: I can sing on key and dance the whole night through. I’m a grandmother, a banker, a volunteer and more. I serve my church and community with hours galore!

I use words like I Can and I Will on bended knee, And now I realize I’ve answered my own question…

Why not me?

BECAUSE … I represent the throng of SENIOR AMERICANS. We’re growing in numbers, with extended life spans. We have the maturity and experience when put to the test, and we cherish our freedom and give our country our best!

We’re the Age of Elegance and America’s treasure, with knowledge and energy that is truly beyond measure.

We’re challenged to practice the “Golden Rule,” And use it every day as our tool, to be role-models on the highway of life, in a world filled with joy and strife.

We give our children and grandchildren our very best example and we share our love and our resources as we lift them in prayer.

Can you feel it, that intangible pride to be SENIOR AMERICANS, true and tried!!

What a joy to live in the day and time

And feel needed and wanted and still be in our prime.

We are SENIOR AMERICANS and we live in this wonderful land of the free.

Our hearts swell to “America the Beautiful” and “My Country Tis of Thee.”

Yes!

We are SENIOR AMERICANS, please listen and please hear.

We still have it together, SO GIVE US A CHEER!

— Ms. Senior Alabama 1997, Betty Leeth Haynes