Betty Lou (Fallot) Wright LAKELAND, Fla. — Betty Lou (Fallot) Wright, former Ponca City, Okla. resident and Tonkawa, Okla. native, died on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013. She was 89. Betty was born in Tonkawa to Edward A. Fallot, who later died during the Dust Bowl, and Fannie Belle (Stewart) Fallot, who made the last land run as a child with her pioneer parents, Elizabeth and Alexander Stewart. Betty attended elementary school in Tonkawa and high school in Ponca City, where she was a member of the Ponca Deb Club. An avid reader and regular patron of both Tonkawa and Ponca City libraries, Betty began her writing career in high school, when she had her first piece published in an Oklahoma City newspaper. After high school she worked for Jake Hampton in his Ponca City insurance office while he was away during World War II, and she continued to write. On February 26, 1945, Betty married her high school sweetheart, Bill Hugh Wright, at the First Christian Church in Ponca City. Bill graduated with honors from OUs College of Pharmacy in 1951, after honorable discharge from the U.S. Army Air Corps, and became a pharmacist and executive with Walgreens Drug Stores. Betty and Bill traveled with Walgreens from Ponca City to Chicago, St. Louis, Springfield Mo., San Antonio Tx. and El Paso, Tx. In El Paso, Betty was president of the PTA at her daughters elementary school and later ran for the school board, upsetting the boards status quo. During their many moves, Betty furthered her writing career, and her articles were published in all major womens magazines, known collectively at the time as The Seven Sisters, as well as in Texas Monthly and other high-profile publications. She began writing novels during the early 1970s and was published by Kensington, a major New York press. After her husbands retirement as Senior Vice President of the Southwest drug store chain, Gunning-Casteel, they moved permanently from El Paso to their winter home in Florida, where they founded Rainbow Books in 1978. Rainbow became and continues to be a nationally recognized publisher of self-help and how-to nonfiction books, as well as works of mystery fiction, for which Betty had a special fondness. Publisher at Rainbow Books, Inc. until her death, Betty worked actively in the book publishing industry during the past three and a half decades. She was founder of the then-named Florida Publishers Group (now known as Florida Authors and Publishers Association, Inc.), and Rainbow Books, Inc. was a founding member of Publishers Association of the South. Betty bravely took her first airplane ride when her daughter Betsy earned a private pilots license at age 17. Soon after, Betty began her own flying lessons and ground school in El Paso and also became a private pilot. She enjoyed flying her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub while in rural South Florida. She co-piloted a larger, twin-engine aircraft with a missionary to Columbia, South America and later participated in the last Powder Puff Derby, the transcontinental womens air race, in which she and her co-pilot took third place. Thoughout her life, Betty and Bill traveled frequently to Ponca City, visiting with their parents, as well as her sister and brother-in-law, June and RC Walker, and Bills sister Sue Hargraves and her husband Elston. They also renewed old acquaintances at two Ponca City High School reunions, the last being the groups 50th Anniversary. Betty is survived by her sister, June Fallot Walker of Ponca City, her daughter Betsy Ann Wright-Lampe and son-in-law Charles Marzen Lampe of Bartow Fla., her granddaughter Jamie Fallot Rhodes of Nashville, and Jamies five small children. Betty was preceded in death by her husband Bill Hugh Wright and her parents, Edward and Fannie Fallot. Memorial contributions may be made to Bettys two favorite nonprofits: the American Heart Association (Heart.org) and the Kidney Cancer Foundation (kidneycancer.org). Bettys sister June Walker is an active resident at Via Christi ASL in Ponca City, and her daughter Betsy Lampe can be reached at PO Box 430, Highland City, FL 33846.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 17:16:02 +0000
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