Mrs. Betty Jean Mathis Wooten's Obituary
Betty Jean entered this earthly life on August 18, 1944 in Kemper County, MS, to the late Willard Mathis and the late Rosie Mae McCoy Mathis. She was the oldest of 14 children. She was raised in the Klondike community in Kemper County until the age of 12, then moved with her family to Willacoochee, GA. She graduated from Atkinson County Training Center in Pearson, GA in 1966. After graduating from high school, she left Georgia and moved back to her birthplace in Kemper County, MS to live with her extended family, and started working at the Little Rock Head Start Center. Shortly after her return to Kemper County, she met the love of her life, Louie Wooten. In 1968, they were joined in holy matrimony and were married for 48 years at the time of his earthly departure in 2016. Three children were born into this union: two sons, Michael and Christopher, and one daughter, Evelyn. Betty Jean took pride in being the ultimate homemaker. Upon realizing that she was expecting her first child, she immediately left her job at the Head Start Center and made the decision to become a fulltime mother and homemaker. She fulfilled these roles well. She dedicated her life to raising, nurturing, and protecting her family. After her three children became adults, she extended this same level of dedication to her grandchildren. Betty Jean was a true family matriarch. She was the backbone that held together a huge extended family which spanned across Mississippi, Georgia, and several other states. Brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins would always reach out to Betty Jean for advice, comfort, and direction. They could handle the truth if it came from Betty Jean because she was always honest, sincere, and spoke from the heart. Her path to becoming the family matriarch began as a teenager. After graduating high school in Georgia and moving back to Kemper County, she was surrounded by many older relatives who never went to school and couldn't read or write. They would trust Betty Jean to read to them their important mail. She would also fill out their legal forms and documents. Her honesty, sincerity, and genuine desire to help others would be traits that would follow her for the rest of her life. Betty Jean loved to cook. Even though she enjoyed other activities, cooking gave her the greatest joy. She could stand over a hot stove for hours and never get tired. Many relatives have stories of stopping by her house and eating at one of her famous Sunday dinners. Thanksgiving and Christmas looked like a bake sale at her house. The kitchen and dining room tables would be covered with cakes and pies. Betty Jean loved church. She enjoyed church activities. She loved baking sweet potato pies and bringing them to church functions. She loved her church family. She confessed to Christ a,t an early age at Simmon Ridge Baptist Church in Kemper County, MS. She later joined Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church after marrying Louie, and remained a faithful member for the rest of her life.
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