Elizabeth Bentley Watson (Courtesy photo)

The family of Elizabeth Bentley Watson, a member of the bar for more than 35 years, submitted this memory of her. Her husband, Wade Watson of Watson Bonander, is a former Atlanta Bar Association president. One of her sons, Hamp Watson, clerks for a U.S. magistrate judge. 

Elizabeth Bentley Watson, known as “Betty,” died on Feb. 5.

Betty was born in Atlanta on Feb. 20, 1957, and grew up in the historic “Wash Collier” home in Sherwood Forest, which her parents, Jimmy and Gwen Bentley, purchased in 1958. In her youth, Betty traveled all around the state of Georgia with her father, who campaigned for statewide office and was twice elected comptroller general. Betty attended the Westminster Schools, and in 1975 she graduated in the top of her high school class and won the AJC Cup. Betty attended Yale University for college, where she was a member of Pierson College and graduated with a B.A. in American Studies in 1979, with honors, among the first generation of women to graduate from Yale College.

Betty received her J.D. in 1983 from the University of Georgia in Athens, where she met Wade. After graduating from law school, Betty served as a law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge John W. Dunsmore Jr. in Augusta and then joined the family law group at Hurt, Richardson, Garner, Todd & Cadenhead in Atlanta, where she worked for five years under the mentorship of Paul Cadenhead.

In 1989, pursuing her lifelong passion for service of those in need, Betty began working for the Georgia Mental Health Institute, a state-operated psychiatric hospital on Briarcliff Road in Atlanta. She continued serving as an attorney for the state of Georgia in the department now known as the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for 28 years until her retirement in 2017. She regularly attended national meetings of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

Betty and Wade were married on May 17, 1986, at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta by my father, the Rev. W. Hamp Watson Jr. She gave birth to a son, Hamp, in 1990 and another son, Jordan, in 1993. After living for many years in Lake Claire and Morningside, in 2007 Betty and Wade purchased the Wash Collier house in which she grew up.

Betty lived a life of passion, curiosity, friendship, love and faith. A woman of words, she would recite the poetry of Chaucer, Coleridge and Yeats to her sons. In 2014, Betty compiled a book of her grandmother's poetry and distributed it to all of her grandmother's descendants. Betty wrote and read aloud an original poem in honor of her son Hamp's engagement party in 2018.

Betty loved to travel and learn about new places. As a girl, she visited the Mayan pyramids of Mexico, where she watched the 1969 moon landing, and as a young woman she visited Brazil, Europe and Bermuda and lived for a year in San Francisco. Many of her happiest hours were spent building “drip” sandcastles and beachcombing for seashells on her beloved Georgia coast. As a mother, Betty traveled with her family across the United States and imparted her deep love of conservation and the National Park System on her sons. We celebrated a joyful 30th anniversary with a vacation to England and Scotland, where we visited ancestral homelands and held hands at Loch Lomond.

Betty was an active and beloved member of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, which she began attending while dating Wade in the early 1980s. Betty sang in the choir for many years and taught Sunday School when her boys were growing up. Betty was called by her faith to cherish and preserve the beauty of creation. As an active member of the Environmental Committee at Glenn, Betty spearheaded award-winning recycling and composting programs, and she was thrilled to drive an all-electric car.

Betty's giving and relentlessly positive nature, her inexhaustible energy, and her devotion to others made her a dear friend to many people. In addition to her church community, Betty was an active member of Wednesday Morning Study Club, her book club and her supper club. Every Christmas, Betty preserved the family tradition of making her father's Abercrombie barbecue sauce to distribute to all of her friends and family, and she never failed to leave some for the mail carrier and garbage and recycling collectors.

Some years ago, doctors discovered by accident that Betty had a rare neurological condition or disease called Moyamoya (“puff of smoke” in Japanese). It caused no problems until 2017, when she had a bleed from which she quickly recovered. She then had brain surgery, called STAMCA or by-pass, which is supposed to increase blood supply to the affected area and relieve pressure on the tangle of small capillaries that gives the disease its name.

She retired from practice of law but quickly resumed a very active life, and we assumed she was in the clear. She spent her final months busily and joyfully preparing for the wedding of Hamp and his fiancee, Preetha Nandi.

On Jan. 21, she developed a headache after her morning exercise, which led to much more severe symptoms and her immediate hospitalization. Unfortunately, the Moyamoya caused more bleeding last Friday and made the path back to health impossible.

Honoring Betty's devotion to the wedding and their upcoming marriage, Hamp (who is a law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge Justin Anand) and Preetha were married at Betty's bedside in her final hours by Hamp's brother, Jordan, in the presence of Preetha's parents, Dr. Indrani and Dr. Kailas Nandi, and gathered friends and family.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Betty's honor may be sent by check payable to Stanford University to: Development Services, Stanford University, P.O. Box 20466, Stanford, CA 94309; please enclose a letter stating, “This donation is a gift to be used for the Stanford Moyamoya Program in honor of Betty Bentley Watson.”