Betty was the youngest child of James Edgar Johnston and Lelia Lou Whitehurst Johnston of Norfolk. Her father was killed in a robbery in 1930 and her mother died the following year, so she was brought up by her next older sister. She did nurses training at DePaul Hospital, after which she married Robert Hewett Beasley who she met when he was in the hospital having his appendix out. They had three children - Robert, Nancy and David. In the early 1960s, her husband Robert divorced her and she went back to work as a nurse at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. In the last years of her life, she lived with each of her children alternately. When she died she was living with her daughter Nancy Boyer.
Betty was the youngest child of James Edgar Johnston and Lelia Lou Whitehurst Johnston of Norfolk. Her father was killed in a robbery in 1930 and her mother died the following year, so she was brought up by her next older sister. She did nurses training at DePaul Hospital, after which she married Robert Hewett Beasley who she met when he was in the hospital having his appendix out. They had three children - Robert, Nancy and David. In the early 1960s, her husband Robert divorced her and she went back to work as a nurse at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. In the last years of her life, she lived with each of her children alternately. When she died she was living with her daughter Nancy Boyer.
