ROCKPORT — Bettye Jean Bryant Lendrim was born in Memphis, Tennessee on March 13, 1933. She passed away June 8, 2024.

Leslie and Emma Lea’s only child, young Bettye Jean, had no idea that her life would be one of travel, adventure, motherhood, scholarship, cooking, artistic creativity and a lifelong love of beauty in all its forms. As the child of a US Army Chaplain and his wife, Bettye Jean attended 14 different schools across the US and Europe before she went to college. During World War II, Bettye Jean lived in Mason Hall, Tennessee, learning the traditional southern way of life from her mother and grandmother – growing their own food, canning, sewing and developing a love of cooking and baking that would last her entire life, to the delight of her family and many friends. She also learned southern manners and gentility, a trait that would serve her well as she met people from all walks of life, from peasants in Chinese villages to Queen Elizabeth.

Bettye Jean finished her high school years in Europe after she and her mother were reunited with her father at various army postings. And it was in Germany that she first began to paint, doing Bavarian landscapes with her mother and developing her artistic eye. After briefly studying archaeology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Bettye Jean moved to Arkansas with her parents, once again following her father's military career. She was singing in a church choir at the Fort Smith Army base when she met the young choir director and organist whose name was Frank Lendrim. She was 21 when they married.

In the early 1950s Bettye Jean, now a young wife,  followed Frank as he began his teaching career in Long Island. As Frank completed his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, Bettye Jean was raising a family, first Melanie, then Nancy and Robert. When Frank became a professor at Kenyon College in Ohio, Bettye Jean’s life skills of southern hospitality combined with her world travel experience made her an outstanding mom, hostess and faculty wife. She was an archivist at the Kenyon College library, a Girl Scout leader, a painter, a weaver, a knitter, creator of most of her daughters’ clothing, and an incredible cook. The receptions and dinner parties created by Bettye Jean in Gambier, Ohio began her legendary career of hosting epic events for the next 50 years.

In 1974, the family moved to Williamsburg, VA when Frank accepted a position as a music professor at The College of William and Mary. Within a year, Bettye Jean was hired as an historical interpreter for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she developed into an expert of 18th century decorative arts and textiles, including studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the  Penland School of Craft.

Now the wife of a collegiate choir director, Bettye Jean once again called upon her Tennessee upbringing as her generous spirit and hospitality made her a surrogate mother to hundreds of William and Mary choir students, especially on their month-long European tours. She was the person who kept things going, providing umbrellas, snacks, spare bow ties, aspirin and the occasional hug for a homesick soprano. Her decades of involvement with the William and Mary Choirs and students was so deep and long lasting that upon Frank’s retirement in 1996, those students established an endowment for the benefit of future choir students named the Frank and Bettye Jean Lendrim Endowment Fund. Today, Bettye Jean’s English Trifle recipe circulates among the choir alumni of the College of William and Mary, and her now legendary cut glass trifle bowl is still used by those alumni whenever they entertain the current William and Mary Choir.

In the early 1990s, Frank and Bettye Jean bought their retirement home in Rockport, and for years split their time between their homes in Williamsburg and Maine. After Frank’s death in 2003, Bettye Jean spent increasing amounts of time in Rockport, moving to Maine permanently in 2012.

The last 20 years of Bettye Jean’s life saw her life experiences and talents manifest themselves in a love of travel, cooking, painting, knitting, bridge, and keeping in close touch with an extensive network of friends and her growing family. As Bettye Jean evolved into BJ, her love of beauty took her on extended travels to China, Russia, Bhutan and northern Manitoba, being exposed to peoples and cultures far removed from rural Tennessee. Her artistic creativity simultaneously blossomed as she studied advanced painting techniques, including rosemaling and the creation of religious icons dappled with gold. Throughout her 80s and past her 90th year, BJ’s painting hand remained steady and sure as she painted hundreds of Christmas ornaments that she refused to sell but delighted in giving away.

Amid this explosion of personal creativity, she was always eager to test new recipes. She never met a kitchen gadget that she didn’t want to try. And as word spread through Camden and Rockport about BJ’s skills in the kitchen, her baked goods were often the first to sell at holiday bake sales – even her fruitcake.

In her 80s and 90s, she enthusiastically embraced new technology, playing online bridge during the pandemic, finding new recipes on her iPad, streaming English television shows and staying in touch with family and friends around the country. As age advanced, she maintained an ever-present positive outlook on her life in Maine. She often said that being stooped over allowed her to see things on the ground that others might miss. In her 91st year, she passed away peacefully on June 8 surrounded by her family after a brief illness.

Bettye Jean “BJ” Lendrim was the granddaughter of William Alvin and Mai Bryant and the Reverend Samuel Franklin and Mary Ellen Lovitt, and the daughter of Chaplain Col. Leslie L and Emma Lea Lovitt Bryant. The widow of Frank T. Lendrim, she is the mother of Melanie (Al) Lovelace, Nancy Lendrim (Roger Greive), and Robert Lendrim (Michelle Margo); grandmother of Elizabeth, Torbet, Elliot, Bryant and Oliver, and bonus grandsons Andrew and Christopher; and great-grandmother of Nolan, Holden, Campbell, Dawson and Cannon, with Madison and Robert as bonus great-grandchildren. She is also survived by Janet Fesq, who, in Bettye Jean’s words, was “As close as I ever came to having a sister.” She is held in fond memory by her Friday Bridge Group, P.E.O. Sisterhood, and the Thursday Night Knitting Group (which meets on Wednesdays).

A memorial service will be held at Saturday, August 3, 2024, at 10 a.m., at Sea View Cemetery in Rockport, Maine. BJ requested that attendees wear bright colors in memory of her love of beautiful things.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to the Frank T. and Bettye Jean Lendrim Endowment Fund at the William & Mary Office of University Advancement, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187, or online at https://giving.wm.edu/. 

Condolences and memories may be shared at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com.  Arrangements are with the Long Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.