Betty Gilmore’s roots ran all the way back to the 1720s, when her British ancestors established a trading post at what would eventually become known as Fort Oswego. Later in the 17th century, her people would help found the town of Pompey and, in the 18th century, the town of Elbridge, both here in Onondaga County.
Betty continued her family’s tradition of community-building during her long life which ended Dec. 5 at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center. She was 95. Betty will be buried at the Liverpool Village Cemetery.
Born on Nov. 17, 1919, in Oswego to Levi D. Pease and Dorothy Brown Pease Dinehart, Betty moved to Liverpool in 1926, when she was 7.
Having graduated from Liverpool High School, Class of ’37, she enrolled at the Powelson Business School and, with the secretarial skills learned there honing her inherited sense of order and organization, Betty served as assistant to high-school principals and later the superintendent of schools of the Liverpool Central School District for more than 32 years, retiring in 1982 as Superintendent Jerome Melvin’s right-hand gal.
Her professional career, as long and distinguished as it was, represented just a fraction of Betty’s contributions to Liverpool’s quality of life.
As secretary of the Johnson Park Development Corporation, she helped transform the village green into an active amphitheater which regularly attracts hundreds of residents and villagers to concerts and community events.
Cotillion coordinator
Betty also served as president of the Liverpool House and Garden Club, president of the Liverpool Historical Society and a member of the Historical Association of Greater Liverpool. Partly because of her own family’s contributions to early New York state, she was a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also served as town chair of fund-raising efforts for the American Red Cross and the United Fund.
But Betty wasn’t all business all the time.
In 1960, she and her husband, Durrance, helped establish the Liverpool Cotillion, a social organization which hosted dances featuring live music at the Liverpool Country Club. She worshipped at the First Presbyterian Church where she sang in the choir for 35 years.
In the 1980s, Betty designed and coordinated the creation of the Liverpool Public Library community quilt, which is now displayed in the library’s main room, celebrating Liverpool’s past and present.
Witty socialite
“Betty was very witty and very social,” remembered village historian Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez. “And I really valued her research skills. She was heavily into genealogy.”
When Gutierrez became village historian in 1991, Betty welcomed her with open arms to the Liverpool Historical Society because the historian automatically becomes a member. “She was very kind to me and took me under her wing, and personally introduced me to all the people,” Gutierrez said.
About 20 years ago, former Review editor Linda Loomis interviewed Betty as part of the Liverpool Legends video series produced by Liverpool Public Library. The 53-minute video can be checked out at the library and DVDs can be purchased for $10 each; lpl.org; 457-0310.
LHS band featured
The Liverpool High School Symphonic Band, directed by Joseph Filio, Jr., will open for Symphoria at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Crouse-Hinds Theatre at the Mulroy Civic Center, 411 Montgomery St., Syracuse. At 7:30 p.m. Symphoria will take the stage to present its multi-faceted “Holiday Magic” concert. An additional performance is set for at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20. Syracuse native Sean O’Loughlin conducts both performances.
In a program overflowing with local talent, Symphoria will be joined by the Syracuse Pops Chorus (directed by Lou Lemos), the Syracuse Children’s Chorus (directed by Stephanie Mowery), dancers from the Ballet and Dance Center and award-winning local vocalists Nick Ziobro and Julia Goodwin.
Friday’s concert is sold out, but tickets are still available for Saturday’s matinee. Tickets cost $25 to $70, $5 for students, and kids 18 and younger are free; 299-5598; ExperienceSymphoria.org.
