Meet Miss Betty...A Redhead if I ever met one

The name tag she wears is her honorary Panera employee badge.
She was one of the very first customers when our store opened.

This week, I want to introduce you to Miss Betty. Don’t let this sweet face fool you. Miss Betty is a powerhouse. She is a true redhead. She fits the reputation they have of being passionate, fearless, a fighter, strong willed, and free spirited. They call the shots in their own lives. This is Miss Betty to a tee.


The day I met her wasn’t long after I started working at Panera. She came bouncing in with a smile as bright as the Spring sun and wearing a Panera name tag with her name on it. Everyone manning a cash register, including the managers, greeted this wonderful lady and lined up to hug her. After placing her order, she breezed down to the pick-up counter and was met by a unanimous cheer of “MISS BETTY!!” More hugs ensued. The whole room lit up when she arrived.

I was working in the dining room at that time so I had a chance to spend some time getting to know her when she would come in. Miss Betty’s cheery disposition was no front. This is who she is. She makes it her intention every day to go out and create something positive in the lives of all she comes into contact with. She is our adopted grandmother and our advisor. She holds court at Panera every Thursday; sometimes with her friend Yvonne and sometimes by herself. If she comes in solo she is never alone long before one of us sits down with her for a visit…and it’s usually a long, delightful visit.

Miss Betty is amazing. She never slows down. She is intelligent, caring, and positive. She has what appears to be a very quiet way about her. Yet she is not meek. She gets the results she needs without ever raising her voice. She told me of a time just recently when she and her husband Otis were at Dunkin Donuts one evening enjoying an ice cream. She saw a man walk up to the counter and take money from the tip cup when the cashier’s back was turned. Then tried to pay for what he ordered with that money. Miss Betty didn’t hesitate to walk up to the man and gently confront him. Saying she saw him take the money. He, of course, denied it and tried to act tough. She persisted by appealing to his sense of decency and bringing up his mama in the conversation. I don’t know if that was what turned the tide or if it was the fact that if this feisty woman had the guts to confront him she wouldn’t hesitate to identify him in a police line up. Either way, the man tossed the money onto the counter and left.

Yeah, I know, she could have been hurt. She’s about as big a minute so it wouldn’t take much. But what if he had a gun? She told me that story and I almost fell over. Her courage was more than many would have attempted.

Miss Betty grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. She was a child during World War II. As a little girl she dreamed of being a dancer. Times were tough and the trials of war didn’t make life any easier. On her 11th birthday she reports that one minute she was enjoying her celebration and playing with her brother on her bike when she suddenly fell very ill. Doctors said it was polio and she was rushed to Children’s Hospital.

A quick note: You may have never heard of polio. It is an infectious, contagious virus children caught that caused paralysis. It was every parent’s worst nightmare. Here in the U.S. polio has been eradicated thanks to a vaccine. But the vaccine wasn’t invented until the 1950’s so that wasn’t part of Miss Betty’s health plan in those days.

Anyway, once the virus had run it’s course, Miss Betty was still dealing with the paralysis. She was sent to a rehabilitation hospital near her home. Our little friend was devastated. Up to that moment, she dreamed of becoming a dancer. Her chances of that were now dashed… Well, that ‘s what the doctors said. Miss Betty had other plans. She spent the next 4 years of her young life working like the devil to over come the effects of the disease and learning to walk again. While in the hospital, she saw others with disabilities that she felt far out weighed hers. So through their example, she found the strength to accomplish the impossible. She not only learned to walk but went back to school and got her diploma. Then she went on to dance professionally and do much more. At 16 she got a job as a professional ice skater in the Ice Capades. She followed her passion and ran a dance school while tending to her husband and their 4 children.

Her can-do attitude was ever present in her school’s philosophy. She always said that if you could walk through her door, she could teach you to dance. Her classes ranged from the “babies” to adults. No one was turned away. Her school not only taught jazz and tap dance but ABC’s, counting and social skills to the children. Her students worked hard but loved Miss Betty. She said they used to start lining up outside the school 30 minutes before class started. Then there were the members of her adult classes, several of whom are still life long friends.

When Miss Betty closed her school and retired, she wasn’t idle long when a former student who was now teaching called her up and asked her if she wanted a job. Miss Betty couldn’t say no. Then when that gig ended and she had declared her final retirement, she went to take a dance class just for the exercise and was there one day when she was once again drafted back into service. I guess when you love what you do as much as she does, nothing will keep you away from it. To this day, she still takes an advanced aerobics class full of a variety of age groups. She is the oldest member of the class, but she stands in the front of the class to show ‘em all how it’s done.

Her life has not been easy or perfect, yet she has maintained her shining attitude. And she has never let the bad times get her down permanently. Even when she tragically lost one of her sons to pneumonia, she fought to keep going and eventually got through it with her smile and the bounce in her step in tact.


As Miss Betty and I were finishing our interview, a woman stopped by the table to say hello. She was the mother of one of Miss Betty’s students and evidently this was the first time they had seen each other in many years. The mother told me that her daughter was now 31 years old. Neither had forgotten Miss Betty and Miss Betty remembered them as if it were yesterday when she had last seen them. That is where I excused myself so the ladies could catch up.