Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ W. Best

Elizabeth "Betsy" W. Best

Elizabeth “Betsy” W. Best, 64, of Ranson, died Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019, under the care of Hospice of the Panhandle.

Born in Ranson in 1954, she was the daughter of Kenneth Lee Walker and Beulah E. (Jenkins) Shiflett.

Betsy graduated from Jefferson High School in 1973. She got her undergraduate degree from Shepherd College in math and English. Her master’s degree from WVU was in school administration. After teaching one year in Clarke County, Virginia, Betsy came home to Jefferson High School, where she taught math and served as department chair for 11 years. After her years in the classroom, she became an assistant principal in 1988.

Many who graduated from Jefferson High School will remember her fondly as their math teacher. Others will recall being a member of her Saturday School group, being on the It’s Academic team she sponsored, or on the cheer team she coached. There are also those who will remember the after-prom event she coordinated, which featured a miniature golf course in the hallway of Jefferson High.

In June 1995, she left JHS to become an assistant executive secretary with the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission. Betsy returned to Jefferson County in 2007 to become an assistant principal at Shepherdstown Middle School; beginning in 2008, she served as the principal there until her retirement in 2013.

After retiring from education, Betsy’s purpose became helping her family. She was devoted to her niece, Olivia, and her nephews, Alonzo, Jalen and Elijah. Their wishes became her commands.

She is survived by her father and his wife, Pat, of Charles Town; her sisters, Judy Ann Marcus and Kathy Sue McGee; as well as her niece, Jennifer Martinez Coleman; and her nephew, Heath Lance Marcus and wife, Jen. Other surviving relatives include nieces, Olivia Coleman, Sarah Marcus and Lindsay Marcus; and nephews, Alonzo Coleman, Jalen Coleman, Elijah Coleman and Jack Marcus. She is also survived by aunts, uncles, numerous cousins, the sisters of her sorority, her good friends and hundreds of students whose lives she touched as an educator and as a mentor.

Betsy was preceded in death by her mother; and her stepfathers, Earl Johnson and Jack Shiflett.

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 2, 2019, at the Melvin T. Strider Colonial Funeral Home, Charles Town.

Friends will be received from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2019, at the funeral home.

Interment will be private.

Please sign the online guestbook and view her obituary at www.mtstrider.com.