AUSTINTOWN - Elizabeth "Betty" Lewis, 77, passed away Wednesday morning, April 29, 2020, at Austintown Health Care, under the care of Hospice of the Valley, from complications following a stroke.

Betty was born Jan. 15, 1943, in Youngstown, and was a daughter of the late George F. Lewis, Jr, and Fannie Margaret Hughes Lewis.

Betty's early childhood days were spent in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1953, she and her family returned to Youngstown and Betty graduated from Austintown Fitch High School in 1961, and later from Youngstown University.

Upon her college graduation, Betty ventured west to Nevada, where she taught grade school in the town of Dayton, and then taught grades 1 through 8 in a one-room schoolhouse in Tuscarora. A year later, she took a teaching position in Elko, Nev., and then moved to Reno and sought a Masters Degree at the University of Nevada-Reno. A highlight of her time at the university was a summer Archaeology Dig in the southwest.

In 1985, Betty moved back to Austintown after finding the west too lonely and missing family. She was a substitute teacher and worked as a teller for Home Savings & Loan. She was also active in her church, Calvary Baptist of Youngstown.

In 2010, just before a planned trip out west to visit family and friends, she suffered a debilitating stroke. Subsequently, she moved into Austintown Health Care (then Meridian Arms), where she had been a resident for the past nine years.

Betty's hobbies included calligraphy, writing poems and children's stories, reading, and collecting ancient history books.

Betty is survived by her sister, Beryl (Doug) Goninan of Idaho Falls, Idaho; her brother, Richard (Alice) Lewis, of Ft. Smith, Ark.; nieces, Kristen Lewis, Ann Duffy, and Beth (Erik) Hutchings; nephews, Jared (Katie) Lewis, Matthew Lewis, and Adam (Kirsten) Krause; and two aunts, Laura Jane Powers and Chip Hughes.

Due to the virus pandemic, private funeral services only will be held on Monday, May 4, at Kinnick Funeral Home, 477 N. Meridian Road, Youngstown. Private committal services will follow at Green Haven Memorial Gardens .